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Hermione was having a bad day, one of those epically frustrating ones that come from being one-third of the golden trio and having just survived an attempt on her life, again. She had been in the hospital wing for the last ten days recovering from a curse that she had been struck with by Antonin Dolohov. The Russian wizard had been silenced at the time and Madame Pomfrey had mentioned that had he spoken the curse aloud she would have been burned alive from the inside out.
It was now settling into early June and she was in Professor Dumbledore's office and for the first time, Hermione was struggling to comprehend what the headmaster was telling her. Harry was sat by the window his attention drawn elsewhere as his guilt and grief ate at him, and Hermione was struggling to understand why she was needed to be here for this conversation at all.
"Professor, I have not taken ill again I simply do not understand why I am needed for this conversation. Yes, I understand that the woman next to you is Harry's Grandmother although how that can be I will never know. She looks younger than my mother and from what Sirius told us about the Potter's they were not young when they had his father James. There's also a minor factor that she was meant to have been dead for at least the last seventeen years." She flexed her hands against the wood of her chair and took a calming breath before she continued.
"I know you kept her continued living a secret but I am unsure as to why I need to be informed of how and why. Don't get me wrong and I am grateful that you would think to include me but surely it's Harry that needs your attention and explanations, not me. I am not the one you left an orphan after all." She said so rather abruptly, Hermione had always felt a bond with Harry, as though he were a brother and the idea of him suffering from the Dursleys had always upset her.
Harry sighed interrupting them all and moving through the office to sit next to Hermione. He gave her a weak smile. "Mione they are trying to tell you that Gran hid you in the muggle world and you're her daughter and well, she didn't really say who your father was. I mean I know it wasn't my Grandfather otherwise you'd be more Percy's age… Hermione?"
Hermione felt all the blood drain from her face as she stared at them all in shock hoping that this was all just some very sick joke. But as she looked at each pitying gaze she felt a lump form in her throat as she looked at the woman claiming to be her mother. She was gorgeous, everything the Black family were rumored to be and more. Long dark curls and storm gray eyes set in a heart-shaped face she had an aura around her that sang of power. She intimidated Hermione in a way she didn't think a mother should.
She found herself reaching for Harry's hand and squeezing, needing a tangible anchor in the storm of emotions that were flooding her. "That's not even possible…" she whispered, more to herself than the room at large but Dorea Black walked around the desk to stand before her. She wasn't much taller than Hermione, maybe an inch or so and up closer she could see tiny lines around her eyes that spoke to some of her age.
"I assure you, not only is it entirely possible, letting you go was one of the most soul destroying things I have ever endured. I have lost many children before I was blessed with James and I did not think I would ever be so blessed as to have another. To have been given you only to have to let you go broke my heart. Your father was well, he brought me back from a very dark place but I could not follow him on the path he has chosen to walk. I will say that you look like him my dear and that as far as I have been informed you are his only child even though he is married.
"I chose the most loving guardians I could find for you as I knew I could not leave you with my sons." She laughed at Hermione's questioning gaze "Yes Hermione sons, they might not have been mine by blood but Remus and Sirius were just as much my sons as James. I hope they have treated you almost as well as I would should things have been different. It was not an easy thing to do Hermione, to give up that which I love most. I never knew I had a grandson until a few days ago, so much has passed me by that I despise myself for not being here to stop. I lost James and Lily and I almost lost Sirius as well. He spent twelve years in that hell and Remus starved for all that time. I wonder if the sacrifice of time that I made was even worth what I lost..."
Ten days Earlier- Death room - Department of Mysteries.
Harry watched as his godfather was hit with a curse and the light died instantly in his eyes, the laughter on his lips seemed to freeze in a strange Macabre mask. His body instead of dropping as it should have now seemed to get pulled towards the mysterious shadowy door where he could hear hundreds of voices loudly protest. He could not make out the words but the sound was angry and defiant.
He tried to run towards Sirius, hoping that by pulling him from the door he could keep him with them in the land of the living. Remus Lupin had grabbed him around the middle and even as Harry screamed to be let go of, the arms around him tightened and he could feel some part of him shatter as his Godfather Sirius Black faded from view. His heart felt as though it was pounding so violently that it would burst out of his chest as though to escape the pain of losing yet another parent.
Harry had never lost hope that one day Sirius would be cleared and he would be allowed to live with his godfather and finally be a part of the family he so longed to be with. Yet with each passing moment, that hope was dying and Harry hated himself for coming here, for leading his friends and his godfather to their possible deaths in a trap set by Voldemort. Remus was speaking to him but Harry couldn't hear him over the vile cackling of Bellatrix Lestrange.
She had begun dancing and twirling manically as she watched her cousin pass through the death door, clearly delighted to have rid the Black family of what she considered to be a blood traitor. "Aww itty bitty baby Potter, did I kill your Puppy?" Her laughter rang through the chamber drawing the attention of all around her. "I killed Sirius Black, I killed Sirius Black. I killed the traitorous Mutt.."
Her words died as she and the others in the chamber noticed the smoke coming from the death door and many began to scream. Remus pulled Harry back out of reach as it began to billow out from the door in all directions.
The Black Estate - Shere Surrey.
"I killed Sirius Black, I killed Sirius Black…."
The words singing through the air echoed through the shadowy door and into the entombing chamber of one Dorea Black. The sound was jarring like nails on a chalkboard and scratched through her eardrums to pierce at her very soul. She awoke in something like a trance, the taste of that potion no longer on her tongue, instead replaced by the dryness of too long without water. Her body felt strange from so long without use, and yet strangely invigorated at the same time.
She looked down at her arms and what she saw there made her heart almost stop, it was not Dumbledore or his death that had called for her, it was what she had sacrificed herself to prevent coming to pass. The Black family must always have a living male heir if it does not then all dark or Black Magic will cease to fail. On the surface, it sounds like a good thing, but considering some of the most effective healing spells and those we use to protect ourselves with are based on dark magic it could become catastrophic.
In 1182 one of her ancestors Arctus Leonidas Black decided it would be a good idea to bond his blood and that of his house with dark magic. His thinking being that darkness can exist without the light and so by tying his bloodline to dark magic he would ensure that his family bloodline would never die out. For centuries there were no problems although over time those born into the Black line became more aggressive and powerful and inclined to use the darkest of magics. But the bloodline was almost destroyed by the Plague which ravaged through Europe and all the sons of the line and all the children died.
When the cures that healers had been using to treat the plague began to fail as well, the consequences of their ancestor's actions were brought to light. And so it was decreed that three of the Black women who were older in years and had survived the plague would sacrifice their lives to return those of three possible heirs to the Black line and heal the rift. Only one male was brought back into the world of living at the cost of far more than the family had been willing to give. And so, this chamber that Dorea now stood within had been formed, it was a place where the dead of the Black family were all presented before their final journey to the afterlife. Any lingering magic their bodies held onto would be absorbed by the room to help pay the price should it be required again.
The price had been paid but had left its mark on Dorea, silver and black runes looked as though they had been cut and burned into her flesh as a reminder of what the magic had almost cost them. On the floor before her laid Sirius Black. He had been ravaged by time and she could see the effects of long starvation that had been slowly being healed before he had been struck dead. His breathing was shallow and she dropped to her knees to cradle his head in her lap and kissed his temple. She breathed deeply even as a tear fell from her cheek. She did not know what had happened to her son but someone was going to pay dearly for it.
His silvery gray eyes opened and met hers and simply stared, his hand shaking as it rose to stroke her cheek. "Am I dead now Ma?" he whispered starting to look around as though he expected others to be there with her waiting to greet him. She shook her head and slowly helped him to stand, unable to resist pulling him into a hug and holding him. "You aren't dead my little troublemaker, but I do not have time to explain just yet. Now move, something tells me you left an awful mess in your wake."
With that she ushered him through the shadowy door she could just make out in the gloom, swatting him when he attempted to turn around and ask questions. "Sirius Orion Black do as I tell you or I swear to Morgana I will bend you over my knee and beat you until you behave!" She couldn't help but laugh as he grinned and pushed him back through the door. As she stepped through the veil, feeling as though a thousand gossamer threads had passed over her skin causing her to shiver. There were maybe twenty people in the room and almost all of them looked at her son as though they had seen a ghost. A young man she almost mistook for her James shouted and rushed her son, hugging him fiercely as tears ran down his cheeks.
Remus was looking at her in much the same way and she could almost see the silent argument he was having inside his own head. She had much to explain but right now she had to rid her family of the threat towards the bloodline. Her cousin Bellatrix, daughter of the dimwitted Cygnus had screamed and ran at the sight of Sirius muttering that it can't be true. Many more in the chamber had begun to run from the returned Black heir as Ministry officials and aurors ran inside. "You know who! He's back!" shouted a rather portly man in pajamas clutching a rather abused bowler hat.
"Yes," she heard the ever-calm voice of Albus Dumbledore utter "as I have been telling you all along Cornelius he is not only back but seems to have broken into your ministry, Minister." Dorea blinked, looking the stuttering fool over and wondering who in their right mind would make this creature the Minister for Magic. Her eyes met the twinkling blue of Albus and she watched as recognition dawned upon him and he excused himself.
"It is truly a long time since I have seen you, Dorea. You look resplendent as always." She scoffed and laughed. "Albus you old fool you, flirting was never your strong suit, but I wouldn't be too alarmed, all Gryffindors are terrible at it." She stroked his wizened cheek and wondered just how many years had passed to weigh on him so. He seemed to have been worn thin.
"Enough years have passed Dorea, that your daughter will surely be needing you to teach her the art of flirtation by now. As a Gryffindor, she too must be terrible at it." Dorea stilled and knew that her sons were all listening in, even as they helped the ministry officials move the injured and explain that Sirius was innocent. She wordlessly cast a shield charm when one of them raised their wand against her son and what she presumed must be her grandson. "Daughter?"
"Yes, rather a curious thing happened seventeen years ago, a young girl's name kept changing on the Hogwarts list of magical children, one second it said Cassiopeia Charlotte Black and then switched between two others showing different parentages. Strange then that this child so reminds me of you from just one glance, and is just as outspoken I feared you must have failed and been reincarnated as the young witch. Of course, if it wasn't for her resemblance to a certain wizard I never would have guessed she was yours, Dorea."
His hand rested on her shoulder as he looked the woman over who had done so much during the last war to protect those that she could. "She's being returned to the school as we speak but come with me and I will see about reuniting you with your daughter."
In the shadows, Rodolphus Lestrange listened with great interest as the woman he had bedded behind Bella's back looked hopeful at the prospect of a daughter with hidden parentage. He needed to regain access to some of the records within his vaults, those that recorded all those born to the family, recognized or not, because if he wasn't mistaken, the girl he knew as Cara had secretly given him a daughter...