A/N: Chapter 43 here. I hope you like it.
Black Blood
The house of Black had changed since the last time Hermione had been there. The portrait of Phineas Nigellus was now installed in the kitchen, and the walls had lighter wallpapers. Sirius and Lucinda had made this place their own.
Once others arrived, they met the girl who was supposed to be Adriana Dumbledore. Everyone did say that she was very similar to Harry's mother, but no one suspected her to be the actual Lily Potter. Even Alastor Moody bought it, whose lack of suspicion was bizarre in Hermione's opinion.
Now, Sirius had to find a room for Lily since the other rooms would be filled soon.
"So where do we put L - Adriana?" he said.
"Why don't you give her the tapestry room? It's been empty for some time. I've asked Kreacher to put a bed in it already." suggested Lucinda.
"That's splendid! Would you be okay with that, Adriana?" said Dumbledore.
"It's fine with me, dad," she replied.
Her acting was excellent, her gestures completely different from Lily Potter. Harry was sure she could make it as an actress. Maybe if she had been a muggle she would have become one.
"Hear that? She called Albus, dad!" Kingsley whispered to Remus next to him, who was smiling brightly.
"Where's Professor Moriarty?" asked Hermione.
"He's quite busy with his department," said Dumbledore "As well as planning Harry's next trip to the Ministry and taking care of his department."
In that moment Lily Potter wisely decided to bomb her new father with questions regarding Voldemort, as anyone who had been away for many years would ask.
Dumbledore spent the evening answering her question. One by one members left. A couple of hours later the bell rang and Lucinda opened the door to Weasley's.
Molly Weasley was very surprised to find out that Dumbledore had a secret daughter. She unlike others called Adriana Dumbledore, Lily a few times, but she patiently corrected her every single time. She also befriended Harry and Hermione fast, so she could have an excuse to talk with them when others were present. The Weasley twins were obviously too interested for their own good.
At last Filch turned up for supper. He sat next to Harry who was the least willing individual to have Filch next to himself.
"Argus?" exclaimed Molly Weasley, "What are you doing here?"
"I'm Dumbledore's good friend and decided to spend the summer with him? Why ask Molly?" said Filch airily.
"Nothing." she replied apprehensively.
"Argus was an undercover unspeakable of the Department of Mysteries. He is now helping us on behalf of Professor Moriarty." said Dumbledore.
"He's not a squib?" exclaimed Arthur.
Filch took a wand out of his large pocket and transfigured Harry's brown hair to green and silver.
"What did he do?" said Harry uncomfortably. He couldn't see his hair so he tried to figure it out by touch.
"He made you cute." said Lucinda adoringly.
"A cute Slytherin cheerleader that is." said Sirius disdainfully.
Hermione offered Harry her mirror.
"Merlin's pants!" cried Harry.
Ginny next to Hermione was laughing her head off. Remus was smiling fondly and Lilly was looking at him sympathetically.
"He just Transfigured Harry's hair green." said Fred in awe.
"Silver, too." said George.
"Harry's a Slytherin." chimed in Tonks mischievously.
"A Slytherin Potter? I don't believe it." said Lily.
"Adriana, believe or not, there were times I wondered how he didn't end up in Slytherin." said Remus. "Of course Harry is a perfect Gryffindor, too. You know, Sirius style."
Sirius went slightly pale. He drank some of his wine and then put the wine down with a slightly shaky hand.
"I think it's time we went to bed," said Lucinda urgently.
"I'm afraid I cannot spend the night here," said Dumbledore as he stood up. "I have a meeting with Elphias Doge. I hope you won't mind me leaving, Adriana. Please be good to these people and don't tease them much."
Lily smiled brightly.
"Why don't you guys show Adriana her room." said Lucinda to Harry, Ginny and Hermione.
Molly Weasley smiled meekly as she remembered her only daughter was in a three-way relationship with Hermione and Harry, but she didn't say anything as Arthur gently pressed her hand.
Harry tried to avoid her eyes as they left the table with his mother.
The tapestry room wasn't far away. Last time Harry had been there was when Hermione had destroyed the tapestry with Fiendfyre. It was one nasty piece of history, scourged with many years of hatred towards the different members of the family.
"Here it is." said Harry as he opened the door for her.
The room was dark. They entered it carefully and Lilly cast a bright Lumos.
The room was filled with yellow bright light. Harry and Hermione froze.
"It's back!" whispered Hermione in horror.
"No way." said Harry.
Yet it was there, only this time it was attached to the walls like a very thick wallpaper. It was different than before as the room was full of small pictures of Blacks.
Before they could get out of shock, Lily began inspecting the wallpaper.
"Ah here's Sirius." she said.
Hermione's hand reached for her wand but Harry grabbed it.
"No, it's of no use. You'll burn the house down." he whispered.
He knew her mother had already seen it. That's why she was so motionless. She was probably shocked or she was wondering whether she should tell Harry or not.
She was blocking Sirius and his siblings' names, but Harry could see Orion Black's picture clearly. According to this tapestry he was not dead yet. He was smiling smugly.
"What have I done?" said Lily as she began to shake frantically. "Oh God!"
Ginny had a sad expression on her face but not any sadder than Harry's.
"Mom?" he called her softly.
Lily began to sob softly.
"Harry, please leave. All of you I mean." she sobbed harder. "And please ask Sirius to come here. I need to see him."
Hermione wanted to say something, but Ginny pulled her with herself following Harry who had stormed out.
Harry ran to Sirius's study and burst through the door. Then he wished he had knocked first.
"Merlin's saggy balls! What are you doing, Harry?" yelled Sirius trapped under Lucinda's rather exposed body.
Lucinda was so surprised that she didn't try to cover herself up, instead she looked directly into Harry's eyes. In less than a second she knew what had happened.
"Oh dear." She stood up exposing herself completely. Harry covered his eyes and wailed.
"Harry you look so cute with all that green hair." she said as she picked up a nightgown to cover herself.
"Please, don't say things like that!" said Harry.
"What happened?" said Sirius.
"Get dressed! Lily saw the tapestry." said Lucinda urgently.
"What tapestry? Didn't Hermione destroy it?" he asked as he struggled to get his legs into a pair of trousers.
"Those are mine," said Lucinda.
"Ah… that's why they won't fit," said Sirius. Instead of taking them off he waved his wand and resized them.
"I'm good to go." said Sirius.
"Me too. Harry, you can open your eyes." said Lucinda.
Harry opened his eyes carefully. They were fully dressed.
"I feel proud that you liked my body." said Lucinda teasingly.
"Uhm… Let's not talk about it." Harry left the room immediately. As they followed Sirius and Lucinda Ginny asked the most inappropriate question possible.
"So… how does Lucinda look, naked?" she asked innocently.
"Ginny!" exclaimed Hermione.
Harry blushed deeply. To tell the truth, he'd never seen a woman more fit.
"Ginny, it's really not the time." said Harry as they ran after Lucinda and Sirius.
Sirius and Lucinda entered the tapestry room carefully. Harry followed them inside.
The room was very dim. It was a dark shade green and almost reminded Harry of the lake he had visited recently to get the fake Horcrux. Lily was standing where she had been before only this time her back was leaning on the wall and her eyes were on Harry. Her lips moved and Harry could swear she murmured "My poor son." as she saw him. She did not dare to move away, fearing that she might reveal the horrible secret to her son.
"Sirius, Harry cannot stay. I need to talk to you. Lucinda can stay, but Harry has to go." she said.
"Harry knows everything, Lily." said Lucinda grimly.
"What?" she said weakly, and then she wailed "My… my poor son."
Harry had never seen his biological father so serious. The man who despite his name had been looking for nothing but pure fun now looked like a mature responsible man.
"Harry is fine." said Sirius "He dealt with the issue the very night he met you for the first time after your departure, Lily."
"But I've destroyed him." said Lily, choking on her tears.
"You didn't know," said Lucinda sympathetically "I wanted you two to end up together, too. Do you think any of us knew at the time."
"It … doesn't make me feel... any better."
Lily lied on the ground. Sirius tried to touch her hand but Lily refused to be touched by her newfound brother.
"Lumos" cast Harry. A warm yellow light filled the room. Hermione and Ginny entered closing the door behind themselves.
"It's a bit cooler here," said Ginny.
"Do they know?" asked Lily.
"I've already told them," said Harry, "We have no secrets."
"Thank you. Thank you for staying by... Harry's side." Lily said as her voice broke.
Harry glanced at the tapestry. The Black family was going back to the middle ages or even further back. Harry traced the names. He saw Aurelius Black as the first Black, but there were others before him on the wallpaper. Harry couldn't stop his cough as he saw a name at the very bottom.
Yehuda I…-79
Fortunately, no one was paying any attention to him. Harry stood in front of his name and pretended to be interested in it. It was connected to Sirius Black and Lily Black whose names were connected to Orion Black. A very odd thing to see in a family tree indeed but Harry knew there was more to this tapestry or wallpaper than what could be seen now.
According to Moriarty, Yehuda was a personality that Eve Morningstar had assumed long before coming to Europe. The Black family was more than just a family. It was obviously an investment. Harry looked around and saw the name Crouch. Both Bartemius Junior and Senior were there. Next to the Senior, Harry could read the name Irina Volkova. Oddly this name did not have a date of birth or death, but it had a picture which was impossible, because from what Harry had seen so far this wallpaper could only show the picture of Black blood relatives, and Irina Volkova was not a Black for sure.
Harry looked at his picture on the tree. It said Harry Black instead of Harry Potter.
"How come I look like James Potter?" Harry asked himself.
To his amazement his picture on the wall smirked and suddenly, right in front of his eyes, changed its form. It now looked like a completely different person who was extremely similar to Orion, and not dissimilar to Alphard Black who had appeared on the wall once more.
The face morphed back to a happy Harry Potter that it had been before.
"Creepy." said Harry.
"Harry, I gave you a potion," said Lily, "James helped by giving me a large amount of his blood for a long period of time. When you were born, I kept mixing a portion of the potion with your milk. I must admit you started to look like James really fast. It didn't take more than a week. To us it was a miracle."
Harry looked at Hermione who nodded sympathetically.
"I should have married you." said Sirius "I knew Harry was mine…"
"I didn't want to marry you like that," said Lily "and now I'm happy we didn't marry each other. I'm glad that it … it happened only once."
"Hey, Hermione is here, too," said Ginny as she pointed towards the wall.
Hermione wasn't far away. She was right next to Draco Malfoy.
Hermione Riddle 1979- to present.
Harry could swear her picture winked at him.
"This tapestry feels more alive than the previous one." said Harry.
"I think it's connected to the house itself." said Lily "What did you do to the last one?"
"I burnt it with Fiendfyre." said Hermione.
"Well, I guess you just destroyed the exterior. The magical bond goes much deeper. I think it has its roots in our blood." said Lily.
"Lily, please don't go into that crap." Sirius begged her.
"Huh?" said Lily with surprise.
"As a muggle-born it seemed cute that you knew a lot about magical blood." explained Lucinda "As a Black, it seems creepy."
"So we are the very nexus of this thing? That's how it came back?" asked Harry, not paying attention to Sirius complaining.
"Yes," said Lucinda. "As long as Blacks live and they recognise this place as their house, the tapestry will be here. Once you leave this house for good, it will follow you to the next place."
They barely got any sleep that night. Lucinda provided drinks all night, in order to help them cope with the pain. When it was near dawn, Lucinda took her bottle of wine and left them alone. Sirius had fallen asleep next to Lily. Harry who was drunk enough to be okay with the image in front of him. He wasn't drunk enough to not blink nervously once Lily hugged Sirius.
"It's just an innocent hug, Harry," said Hermione. She had avoided drinking last night. Her eyes were bloodshot yet very alert.
"I know," he said.
He looked at Ginny who had collapsed in on his feet, her head resting on his stomach. Most certainly his parents were in a more innocent position than he was.
"Did it feel this bad when you found out about your parents, Hermione?"
Hermione smiled sadly.
"I cannot say if it was any better, Harry. One day my parents were the best in the world and the next day I realised they were not my real parents. The thing is, I had to dig hard to find the truth. I was lied to over and over again, so much so that I'm not sure if even Voldemort is my real father. First I was the daughter of two kind muggles then suddenly I was the illegitimate Malfoy. I could have accepted that but then Dumbledore confessed that Voldemort is my father. I felt unclean and bad. I was the spawn of evil, Harry, I still am. I'm the fruit of the Dark Lord…" her voice broke sadly "I have killed at a very tender age. I already am a murderer with a higher body count than my father when he was my age."
"He is trying to mess you up, Hermione," said Harry.
"I know." she said just like Harry had a minute before.
Hermione's picture on the wall smiled triumphantly.
"I feel these pictures are different than before," said Harry.
"Yes, there is more to them," said Sirius who was now awake. "They are more aware of their surroundings than before. Lily's picture sends me kisses when I look at her."
He looked at the wall and true to his word Lily Potter on the wall sent him a kiss.
"This room freaks me out," said Sirius. "Even more than when I was just a kid and my father brought me here to test if I was truly his son.
"In some way it feels like Dumbledore's office," said Harry.
"No, Harry, It doesn't." said Sirius. "The portraits in his office talk. There is an evil presence here. These pictures never talk and even when the tapestry wasn't taking the whole room, It freaked me out a lot as a child. I used to be really happy that my name was gone. Now I have a picture, too. Maybe I'll burn it once more."
"Sirius, when did your mother burn your name?" asked Harry.
"I was sixteen when I ran away, according to Kreacher mother gave me about a year to return before she finally burnt my name off the tapestry."
"When did you and Lily have me?" said Harry. He realised that he didn't want to call Lily Mum because Sirius would be Dad, and Harry wanted to keep himself sane.
"Well, at first I didn't know you were mine. James told me when you were just a few months old. Before I was told, it always baffled me that her due date was late June, since they started going out with each other in February. I'm afraid I didn't know much about children so I dismissed it as my own miscalculation. and when I found out it was too late. They had married already. You know, it happened on Halloween. Slughorn… I mean the real one, had asked Lily to make a batch of the Elixir of Euphoria. Lily had added peppermint which really works well with it, and I really love it. So… we drank a lot that night and that really isn't dangerous, but we made a mistake. James had brought some fire whiskey. Lily and I were too cheerful to think about the consequences and just drank some of it. Next morning we woke up in the Prefects' Bathroom. I clearly remember Peter's horrified face when he found us.
Lily said she didn't want to be with me and I - I wanted to be with Marlane. We both said it was a mistake and we never talked about it ever again. I visited you a few months after you were born and didn't look like James and only then I realised that you were mine. They told me the truth and Lily made me promise to hide the truth and never tell you. I promised to take this secret to my grave. Your mother had finally settled for James and I had lost my chance. We decided it would be better for you to live as Harry Potter. I was a hopeless, penniless man back then and there was nothing I could do for you."
Lily's head fell on Sirius's shoulder. Sirius face stiffened momentarily.
Now Harry could see it. Lily and Sirius hugging each other wasn't wrong. They were like any other brother and sister. What made this wrong was only one thing.
"Yep, it's me." said Harry to himself.
"What Harry?" asked Hermione.
"Nothing. I just said 'yes'." said Harry.
"I think you and Ginny need to find somewhere more private." said Sirius.
He was right. Ginny's head was getting closer and closer to a dangerous spot.
"Ay…" Harry bit his lips as Ginny bit him hard.
"Merlin! Ginny stop." said Hermione as she dragged her away. Ginny instead grabbed Hermione's neck and pulled her down.
"Okay, I'm taking Lily out." said Sirius as he lifted Lily in his arms and left the room. Harry watched his girlfriends struggle for two minutes and then he fell on the ground, snoring so loudly that could be heard outside.
A/N: Well, what do think? What is your theory?
