Being a Black, or better said being Sirius Black a.k.a. Padfoot , he had no problems to get into this Grimmauld place. The Sirius of this reality had helped warding the place and therefore the wards recognized Padfoot as being part of them. The wards wouldn't inform anyone about a foreign and unknown wizard being present at the place. Recognizing strangers and intruders and making the warders aware of this was something that it was intrinsically present in any blood-based-ward pertaining to and put into place by the Black family. Arcturus and or Pollux Black thy name is paranoia. But once he reached the square itself or better said the place where number 12th Grimmauld Place was situated he went from wariness to astonishment.
This Grimmauld Place was shaped like an irregular isosceles triangle instead of being a simple square. The place was extremely well kept and groomed and seemed to be a very exclusive place with a small handful of very expensive and several stories high townhouses, a medium sized magical garden with a big playground in the middle and with one side closed up by a big building with the most incredible plaque Sirius had seen in his life "Grimmauld preparatory school and Kindergarten". Kids nearby any Black residence were for Padfoot like donkeys and rabbits mating, or Snape and hair care products, something out of the realm of normality and common sense.
As usual there was nothing to be seen between numbers eleven and thirteen but he could feel number twelve being in his usual place. The biggest difference he noticed was that this Grimmauld place was most definitively a purely magical place without any muggle neighbours and spoke of care and money. The Grimmauld Place of his reality only spoke of dark magic and dereliction. But what really boogled the mind was that it seemed to actually be a happy place! For Padfoot Happy place and Grimmauld place were an oxymoron, period.
Padfoot felt totally out of his deep on this one and couldn't avoid being very curious indeed at the same time. He took a look at the playground wich to him looked like an extremely strange place. Actually this playground looked similar to the muggle ones he had seen but it had obviously been improved with magic and built for young magical children.
There were even a couple of big mushroom-shaped playhouses like the ones he had seen in the children books Lily used to read to baby Harry. He and James had really laughed their heads off, when they learnt that muggles believed the garden gnomes to live in such places. Had they never de-gnomed a garden?
Whoever designed the playground knew quite a lot about the muggle world and let's face it, that's not something he could say about any one of the persons imprinted in the existing wards, could this be a different new universe with muggle-loving-Blacks? Impossible! Padfoot would eat his wand without ketchup if that was the case, he even would be ready to kiss Snape with tongue, should that be the case. He really was so sure of his family and his ideas regarding muggles.
Padfoot decided to go into one of the mushrooms and lie on the comfortable window-seat with a view to the to townhouses to wait until someone came out and he could see which kind of strange wizards lived in this strange place. A Voldemort serving Sirius was difficult to believe but not really impossible, he had already seen a couple of those in his traipsing from Veil to Veil. Buta muggle-loving Arcturus Black, or Pollux Black or even better Cassiopea Black were so impossible that maybe this was the end of the trip because Padfoot had definitively lost his mind.
After some time Padfoot saw the door to number thirteen open and a mini-Sirius came out of the house. The kid was obviously a Black and even more obviously five to six years old Sirius Black but he also was dressed with dungarees and trainers 'a Black dressed like a muggle? Thought Padfoot' . That seemed impossible in any universe Sirius could think of.
He was also surprised that this mini-him would came out of number thirteen and not out of the ancestral and most nerve-wrecking house of Black situated at number 12th Grimmauld Place. Don't get him wrong, he was happy for the sprog, after all number thirteen was a very nice place, nicer than number 12th had ever been but it was still something quite different to his own reality.
Mini-Sirius happily went to number eleven and started jumping until he reached the door knob . The door knob, an obviously magical one, recognized him by touch and cause the door to open for him. All that Sirius was able to hear before the door to number eleven closed behind the kid was a very loud and definitively not acceptable within the Black family circles voice calling: "!".
After some time the door to number eleven opened again and out came mini-Sirius together with another small kid of the same age, this second kid was dressed with robes and had turquoise hair. Sirius thought that this second kid seemed kind of familiar but couldn't place his face at this moment in time. The kids came into the hear range of Sirius
" …and aunt Clytemnestra is already home with mum helping with the preparations for the party, grandma Druella came with flowers and great-granny Black and great-grandmother Black are already here. And you will not believe it, it's so wicked, great-granny Black is finishing my birthday cake and GUESS WHAT Teddy I was able to choose the cake and I've chosen a vampire bat formed one, with chocolate and more chocolate and then with strawberry jam in the middle, and mum will charm him to fly a little bit before we eat it and this morning dad and mum came to wake me, me alone, without my brothers, brothers can be such a pest, you are so lucky to be an only child, and dad gave me this wicked ring 'cause I'm the youngest bear of the house of Black"
Sirius hadn't been aware that small kids could talk for such a long time without apparently needing to take a breath. Neither was he aware of any bears within the house of Black, this universe was getting more and more unusual by the minute.
"You're what?"
"The third bear of the house of Black" answered mini-Sirius
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"I'm not really sure, but dad told me that great-grandfather Arcturus is the Head of the House"
"Why is he the head of the house, shouldn't he be the roof? Houses do not have heads" –Padfood quietly sniggered at this, the sprogs were funny and the second kid sounded to Sirius quite a lot like Remus-
"Uhm! That's a good question… I don't know why he's the head, but I am sure that I understood that part and great-grandfather is the Head of the House. Besides you know my great-granfather if he says he's the head no one is going to disagree with him. Nobody answers back to great-grandad either"
Well, thought Padfoot, something normal at last. Answering back to Arcturus Black was as healthy as a bout of the black plague. Actually Black kids learned not to disagree with their elders even before they learned how to walk , now that he thought about it.
"Well, that's the only thing which you have said until know which does not sound weird" said turquoise-haired sprog.
"Anyway, great-grandfather Arcturus is the head, great-grandfather Pollux is the actual bear, dad is the second bear and uncle Reg is the third bear and as today is my sixth birthday I've got to be the youngest one and someday when all the bears are gone I'll be the Head of the House of Black"
"Alphard that's real silly, if your uncle Reg is the third you can't be the third bear like you said before, you'll be the fourth, and what do you mean with bear? What do you mean with when they go? Where are they supposed to go, all these bears? And if they are not yet gone where are they right now? I haven't seen a single one in your house and I've been about a zillion times there. The only one who can transform into an animal is your dad as he's a dog, or a grimm but not a bear, maybe you got the wrong animal." The turquoise-haired said.
"I DID NOT! Dad gave me the ring and told me that it's for me, 'cause today it's my sixth birthday and 'cause I'm the youngest bear of the house of black." The Sirius-sprog start sounding kind of angry with his fried.
But at this point of the conversation between both kids Padfoot was even more confused about all this information than before. He couldn't make heads or tails of anything the pint-sized chatterbox had said but the one talking about bears had a Black heir ring on his finger and at least all the people mentioned were Blacks and seemed to be related to pint-sized chatterbox.
A loud bang distracted Padfoot from his mental mutterings. A young Harry (Padfoot was not sure but if the chatterbox was six this Harry seemed be one or two years older) came out of number thirteen together with two blond kids, one looking like a mini-Lucius Malfoy and the other a little bit more plump but still blond, the second kind also looked kind of familiar but, Sirius couldn't place him either. The bang seemed to have been produced by them closing the front door. Sirius wondered once again about the capacity to create loud noises that kids and teenagers seem to have.
Both small kids seemed happy to see the older ones.
"Harry, Harry, Teddy does not believe me, tell him, tell him how I'm the new bear of the house of Black" piped mini-Sirius
Harry, Draco and Neville started laughing at this.
"Alphard you thickie –said Draco- you are the "Heir" of the House of Black not the "Bear" of the House of Black. "
"I am not a thickie, Harry tell him that I'm not"
"Well if the shoe fits" – said Harry winking to the sprog – the interaction between Harry and Alphard was very similar to the one between Padfoot and his younger brother Regulus in their youth. And Padfoot thought that Alphard may look like him but he had all the makings of a pint-sized troublemaker like Regulus used to be.
"Ah! – said Teddy- that means that you are the youngest Black heir, not the youngest Black bear " smart aleck, thought Padfoot.
At this moment a strange sound interrupted the on-going conversation and the weirdness started anew. A car, an expensive, top of the range blue limousine came into the place and parked. A muggle car in magical Black owned Grimmauld Place! The five kids stampeded towards the car shouting at the same time:
"Uncle Marius, uncle Marius, uncle Marius…"
"What did you get me? What did you get me?"
"Will you be taking us to the zoo today? Or later this week?"
"Will you drive us around with the car? "
"Will you give us a drive? Please! Pretty, pretty please!"
Padfoot was rendered speechless at this sight , the driver of the muggle car was a Black, an elderly gentleman extremely well dressed but most definitively wearing muggle clothes. He actually looked like a male version of aunt Cassiopea and Padfoot was sure that this 'uncle Marius' one could only be Marius Black but… he was a squib! And the Black family was well known for disowning squibs! Uncle Marius had been blasted from the tapestry ages ago!
Uncle Marius came out of the car, ruffling the hair of the kids, smiling at them and definitively not understanding a word in all this ruckus they were making. But Padfoot could see that he was used to this and knew these kids very well which for Sirius did not make any sense.
Marius Black was the squib brother from Cassiopea, Pollux and Dorea Black. Cassiopea –thanks Merlin, had never married or procreated- , Pollux was Sirius grandfather on his mothers' side and Dorea was married to Charlus Potter and was Harry's grandmother.
Therefore if things were here like in his own universe, or similar, it would make sense for him to maybe know Harry and Alphard (who was obviously Sirius' oldest son in this reality) but it boggled the mind for Marius to be on good terms with any kid from Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy. Even if the kid was as related to Marius through Narcissa as his own would.
Actually know he thought about it Padfoot was sure that his uncle Marius had married Clytemnestra Malfoy the squib sister from Abraxas Malfoy. Nonetheless Padfoot knew that the Malfoys and the Blacks views on squibs were the same and none of them would actually accept any squibs within the family. He really had a hard time believing what he was actually seeing.
Uncle Marius went to the boot of the car, picked up a big present out of it and started walking towards number 13th were Harry, Alphard and the two blond kinds had previously came out of. It was obvious that the present was meant to be for Alphard and would be given to him on his birthday party at some later point in the day.
Whilst Marius and his entourage were heading away from the car and towards number thirteen number twelve came into view and at the same time two plops of apparition could be heard in the place. Pandemonium seeming to start again but the only one surprised seemed to be Padfoot. For the rest this seemed to be quite a usual occurrence.
Out of number twelve came Cassiopea Black who was happily greeted by the kids with a very laut "Goooddd Moooorning Aaauuuunt Casssiiieee" and the plops were made by the apparition of two young men, who as soon as they appeared in the place were jumped over by the kids. Padfoot was getting tired and he was actually only watching the amount of energy the five kinds seem to posses.
One of the young men filled Sirius with a very deep longing , that one was his younger brother, Regulus but this was a Regulus he had never seen before. He looked to be around twenty-five years old and his own brother had never lived to reach them.
The second man looked familiar but he couldn't place him until Draco greeted him with a loud "uncle Rab, uncle Rab" – Rab…, also Rabastan Lestrange, the younger of the Lestrage brothers and a childhood friend from Regulus. He belonged to the same year as Reg and they were together in Slytherin.
Cassiopea Black would have been the perfect poster girl for a spinster dark witch had not been poster girls such a muggle thing and therefore beneath her. There was no one in the wizarding world with such an extensive and deep knowledge of the dark arts and compared with her usual way of dressing even Snape did look like a cheery chap. She approached the kids and Marius and as soon as she saw Alphard she mutated into the perfect picture of a child-eating-hag
"Alphard James Black! How you dare young wizard! What do you thing that you are wearing! – she screeched - You are the youngest heir of the most ancient and honorable House of Black, how do you dare defile your family wearing those, those, those… muggle rags!" She pointed her wand at the pint-sized chatterbox, -Sirius couldn't help but to feel very sorry for the lad whilst remembering other such occurrences from his own younger days- and… vanished all his clothes after sending him an stinging hex to his six years old bottom.
Poor Alphard yelped and stood there in his birthday suit , shocked and quivering quite close to tears.
"But, but, but, aunt Cassie- sobbed the kid- it's my birthday and, and, and I was going to change into robes for the party anyway" – and started crying -
Regulus picked the sprog up, cuddling him and covering him with his outer robe and trying to calm him whilst carrying him home to change into more appropriate, and less dangerous, apparel for a heir of the house of Black.
That no one found this occurrence an unusual one told Sirius all he had to know about the family. After all, he had had an aunt Cassie in his younger days and he had been silly enough to wear muggle clothes on a few occasions. Of course nobody within the family was stupid enough to try to complain about something like this, this was what their elders called a well earned learning experience.
Marius tsk-tsk-ed his elder sister whilst heading towards the house
"Cassie, really, was that necessary? The poor thing did not mean anything by it, he even intended to change into proper robes for the party later on and he's only been six years old for a couple of hours now. You can't expect him to already know all the rules. "
Cassiopea levitated the present Marius had carried to levitate in front of them and answered Marius with a tone which would have put the Lord Chancellor to shame
"Marius, you know that he's the youngest heir and therefore it is of the utmost importance that he learns appropriately how to conduct himself in every situation. And you should give them a better example by wearing proper wizarding robes. After all you are a Black."
"Cassie, I'm also an squib, I haven't had any robes since I was disowned when I was eleven and did not receive a Hogwarts letter."
"Well, you are considered now to be once again a Black and should dress like one and not with those muggle rags! "
"Cassie, this is a most expensive Savile Road tailor-made-suit, only a handful of muggles would be able to afford it!" Marius sounded like someone who had lost this battle several times before and new that he would lose it again several times in the future.
"Muggle Rags!"
Padfoot couldn't hear this exchange any further as the pair disappeared into number thirteen. But he was really curious about such an exchange Marius being disowned was clear, that much was the same as at home but he being or becoming once again a Black… How had this happened? And why? And was Cassiopea actually interacting with his squib brother like any normal sister would? 'or as normal as sister within the Black family interacted anyway' thought Padfoot.
This universe was most unusual.
-End of chapter two-