This chapter is more of an introduction to the characters that will be considered the main ones, who will show up repeatedly throughout the whole story, I also wrote this to establish the relationships between the different characters, specifically Hermione's relationship with her cousins and the rest of the family.
As for how you want to imagine Alphard Black, I am aware that he doesn't exactly have any pictures of how he could've looked like in the actual movies, since he was only ever mentioned once, but since they'd mentioned briefly that his was considered Sirius's favorite uncle, I think that Sirius sort of looked up to him, and so I picture him as Luke Evans who is a total babe, and such an Alphard.
Enjoy, and leave a review of what you thought!
Chapter 2 – Obscurum
The cries of his daughter is what brought Alphard Black out of his dark office, the blinds shut, keeping out any unwanted sunlight, and his wand lit up with whispered Lumos as he read through certain documents, scratching at his bearded chin, his grey eyes roaming back and forth as he took in different words and different names, not caring that much, but he had to make money somehow.
But the cries of his little one had made him bolt straight out of his chair, and he found himself bounding down the long trail of steps, only to find a little figure crouching on the floor, her dark tendrils blocking his view of her rounded face, and he could see the house-elf, Mitzi, leaning next to the little 'mistress' trying to console the young girl, but her little whimpers could be heard all the way upstairs.
"My dear, what happened?" Alphard asked his daughter, worry clear in his hoarse voice, as he knelt down on his knees, wrapping his arms around her little body and placing her on his lap as she wrapped her rather chubby arms around his neck, nuzzling his chest, and wetting his shirt with her still falling tears.
"Mitzi, what happened?" his voice losing the softness that often took over whenever the little girl in his arms even glanced his way. Her curls were brushing against his face, and he let his chin rest atop of her head, the smell of lavender distinct in the black waves.
"Little mistress was playing with her toys, and then all of a sudden, mistress's doll attacked her! Hitting her in the face! It was terrifying Master!" Mitzi squeaked, fear in her eyes that she may be punished for the little mistress getting hurt on her watch.
"Thank you Mitzi, you may leave, I'm going to have a little chat with my daughter." He gave a small grimace, which was meant to be a smile, to the house-elf as it snapped its fingers and disappeared, probably going to punish itself for something it didn't do. He will speak to it afterwards, once he'd been able to calm down the still crying toddler in his arms.
"Hermione" he coaxed softly, lifting her slightly so that her face was now slightly visible, and he could see the slight redness forming on the left side of her forehead. He felt anger well in his heart, wanting to burn that stupid doll for inflicting pain on his little one.
"It just flew papa!" she wailed, and her head was buried, once again, into his chest, her little five-year old form shaking with absolute horror and fear, and also pain.
"My darling, tell me, how did it fly?" he asked softly once again, his hand rubbing against her back, and she looked up at him, sniffling, and he felt the surprise grip his entire being, as she continues to look more and more like her mother, with a beautifully rounded face, large eyes that were rimmed by dark lashes, a small button-nose that was currently reddened from her cries, and little lips that were blood red, like a rose. He felt himself worry, as she got older she would only grow even more beautiful, and men will be lining up, asking her hand in marriage. The thought of her leaving had him gripping onto her form tightly, making sure that she never left her poor papa alone.
"I wanted it to come to me, bu—but I didn't want to walk, so I just imagined it flying into my hand, and it did!" her eyes widening as she spoke, her speech not as childish as a child her age should be.
He listened closely, and it came to realization that his daughter had come across her magical powers for the first time, a little accidental magic, nothing too harmful.
"It is only magic my dear, you are coming to know your powers. You'll be able to control them one day, you will attend a school that will help you with everything you need, so that your dolls will never hurt you again." He smiled at her, and she looked at him, lips pursing and eyes narrowing slightly.
"Promise?" she muttered, her hands now folded in her small lap, and he chuckled lightly.
"Have I ever lied to you, darling?" feigning sadness, as he lowered his head, and he felt her shuffle in his lap and grasp his face with those pudgy hands. She leaned in and kissed his nose, and he felt his heart burn with a love he'd never known could exist.
"We're going to visit your grandfather Pollux later in the evening, he's invited us and your cousins for dinner." He attempted to change the subject, and bringing up his father, regardless of how harsh the man was on him when he was younger, brought a smile to his daughter's face, her love for the old man was confusing at first, but once he witnessed his father lift her onto his lap, and pulled a familiar book, The Tales of Beedle and Bard, his voice taking the form of the different characters, making the girl giggle and read along with him, he realized that her love for him was a mutual feeling between the two.
"Let Mitzi prepare your bath, and pick out your favorite outfit, and we'll leave in a bit, alright?" he kissed her on the forehead, and placed her on the floor once again, before standing up and making his way upstairs, and back into his study, closing the door behind him, and resuming his work, the boredom already taking a toll on his being as he grabbed his wand and the documents, and sat on the uncomfortable chair.
Finding themselves at the front steps of 'The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black', Alphard felt his insides crawl with not-so-nice memories, beatings he'd received from his grandfather, and at times his own father, scolding's from his late-mother Irma Crabbe, and having his witch of a sister constantly tell on him, and the devil-incarnate that is his brother. But family was family, and Pollux would be damned if he allowed any of his children to get away from Grimmauld, regardless of how hard they tried.
Knocking on the door, he looked to his right and found Hermione gripping his fingers with excitement as she waited for Kreacher to open the door, and to see her beloved grandfather.
The door finally opened up, revealing Kreacher, the most loyal house-elf, his love for the Black family was borderline insane, but he greeted the house-elf, Hermione waving at it, and watched as Kreacher bowed.
"Mistress and Master Black, what an honor to have you here. Master Pollux is in the living room with the others." He muttered, his voice almost unclear, but Alphard bowed his head in recognition of what the elf said and moved past it, making his way into the living room and coming face to face with chaos.
Everyone he slightly despised was here, aside from his father, sometimes.
He grimaced slightly, but spread a smile across his face almost quickly.
"Good evening family" he said rather loudly, and they all turned towards him, his found himself being tackled by his nephews, Sirius and Regulus, their dark heads shaking with laughter.
Letting go of Hermione's hand to wrap his arms around the two boys, he patted them both on the back, and pulled them back.
"Let me get a good look at my favorite nephews!" he chuckled as Sirius stood taller, and his little brother attempted to imitate him.
At the age of seven, Sirius Black reminded Alphard too much of himself, and he often worried that the little boy will grow to be a wild young man, uncontrollable, as he was once.
As for Regulus, he was the reserved one from the two, but he loved his Uncle Alphard, his favorite uncle, who provided hugs and made jokes about his father, Orion, and his uncle Cygnus, of how they used to worship Alphard when they were younger, and how they were often jealous of his good-looks.
Sirius wanted to become his uncle Alphard when he was older. Looking to the right, he saw his little cousin, Hermione, the only cousin, aside from Andromeda, who he loved dearly.
He went over and gave his cousin a brief hug, as Regulus just stared at her, but his eyes held a warmth as he took in the young girl, who was the same age as he, and held a gleam in her eyes that he knew he could never say no to once he was older, and they became more like siblings.
"Hermione!" he heard Pollux cheerfully say, his grandfather patted his lab, and he watched as Hermione bounded across the room and sat on his lap, he wrapped an arm around her, and they began to whisper to each other, he often let out a loud laugh, bringing his attention to them.
"Alphard, son, how have you been?" Pollux asked, his voice hardening once again. Always serious when it came to his own children, but a soft man when it came to his grandchildren, specifically Hermione and Sirius, how odd.
"Busy as usual father, I have had a lot of work to deal with this past week. But Hermione was a good child, today she had her first bout of accidental magic, it was rather interesting." He muttered with amusement, his eyes shining with fondness as he took in his daughter, showing her little bruise to her grandfather.
"Ah! A talented Black, nothing unusual. She is the youngest of the grandchildren, and happens to be the only one who's experienced accidental magic at such a young age. Regulus hasn't had any of that yet." Regulus gave his grandfather an annoyed look, at only five it was nothing threatening but his grandfather didn't appreciate it and gave him a pointed-look, in which Regulus quickly apologized.
Alphard took in the rest of the residents within the room.
"Alphard" Walburga, his older sister, greeted him with a toothless smile. She currently sat next to their niece, Narcissa Black, the seven -year old with the light blonde hair slicked back into a tight ponytail, she looked to her uncle and gave him a wide grin, in which he returned. The child was precious, and he hoped she wouldn't become her mother.
Druella Black was a pureblooded bitch, who had her claws sunk deep into his brother, Cygnus. She neglected her children most of the time, and left them to be raised by the house-elves, wasting all poor Cygnus's money on shopping trips in Paris, and tea parties, which had other pureblooded bitches such as herself attending.
Speaking of Druella, the wench looked at him and gave a small grimace, her feelings towards him were mutual to say the least, seeing him as a loose and wild man, who disregarded women and couldn't even keep his wife around for long, ignoring the fact that the woman did die during child-birth and didn't abandon them, well not entirely.
Druella was seated next to her husband and his brother; Cygnus lifted his glass of whiskey and smiled at his brother.
Regardless of how unstable Cygnus was at times, regardless of what he fool he was when it came to dark magic, regardless of what an idiot he could be at times, he respected Alphard, and they were often friends, when they weren't arguing of course.
"Cygnus, looking well brother." He smiled, and looked to see that young Bellatrix and Andromeda were seated next to one another, however Andromeda looked close to snapping at her curly-headed sister, as Bella bounced in her seat, saying things and poking her sister repeatedly.
"All my children are here, what do you say we get dinner started. I'm famished, and I've got a lot to discuss with you boys" Pollux said, pointing his fingers at his sons, and Alphard gave Cygnus a look, trying to see whether his brother knew anything, but he just shrugged, seemingly just as confused.
"Soon they'll all be off to Hogwarts, and then what will we do?" he turned to see Walburga standing near him, her eyes looking at Regulus, her little love, the son she adored.
"I don't know" Alphard managed to reply, but he was looking at his own child, wondering what would happen once she was old enough to attend the magical school.
Knowing her cousins would be there gave him some comfort, but as each of the young ones grew older, he realized that similarly to the elder Blacks, every person cared for himself, aside from Sirius who never took any of the traits of a Slytherin like the rest of his cousins, and even his own brother.
He trusted that Sirius would take care of his little Hermione, and Regulus as well.
He trusted that she would be okay; there was nothing to worry about. He will always be there to protect her.