Disclaimer: I don't own anything, neither am I making any money off this. I am just writing for my own enjoyment and hopefully the enjoyment of others. What's really all mine are any mistakes you might find within the text, if you want them you'll have to sue me (LoL)
" How are we supposed to call him? – grandmother Melania asked- We can't call both of them Sirius, it would be confusing. "
" We could call him idiot for getting himself thrown in the middle of such a situation. As Head of his House he should have been more careful. ' said grandfather Arcturus with a show of his usual empathy
Oh Home sweet home –thought Padfoot-
-End of chapter five –
" The best would be for us to either call him by his middle name, Orion, or by the usual nickname for Sirius, Padfoot " Remus, as usual, was nothing if not the sensible one.
Both Padfoot and Sirius were against calling himself Orion. Orion Black was the name of Sirius' father and a very sore point for both of them.
" You can call me Padfoot "
" Well Padfoot, maybe you could tell us something about yourself as well as the reason for your presence here. " said Alexandra, ' please call me Alex', Black.
Padfoot knew that this wouldn't be easy but at the same time it was necessary. Therefore he started recounting his life to a bunch of strangers who were extremely familiar to him, the irony of it! .
He started with his younger years at 12th Grimmauld Place, with Regulus and his parents. He noticed that both Regulus and Sirius considered asking something but restrained themselves, letting him go ahead with his tale. About going to Hogwarts, meeting James Potter and being sorted into Griffindor.
The part about him leaving his parent's house and being disowned was the most difficult to recount, he needed to correctly word it without badly ruffling any feathers from those present. In his universe he had actually ran away of those present and all that they stood for. Padfoot didn't want to end at wand point with his elders after so many years.
He went ahead with the first war against Voldemort, " that impudent Parvenue!" snorted Arcturus, the hiding of the Potters, the Fidelius, the change of secret keeper, Cassiopea snorted quite loudly when she heard the reasoning beyond this asinine idea, as she put it.
He then told them about being thrown into Azkaban without a trial, Grandpa Pollux ranted a long time about such a thing, A Black! Thrown into Azkaban without a trial! Unbelievable!
His escape from Azkaban put him again in a very good light to those present. No one had ever escaped Azkaban, but of course if any one would be able to do it, it would be a Black. Of course! –No comments! , thought Padfoot-
When he came to the point of 12th Grimmauld Place having been made the headquarters of the Order and having been put under the Fidelius by Dumbledore himself there were five minutes of an eerie silence before all hell broke loose.
Actually it got so bad that Regulus took him out of the room under the very flimsy subterfuge of Padfoot needing to "freshen up a bit" and gave him a head slap as soon as they were out of the room.
" Do you have a brain at all? Couldn't you have kept that bit for yourself? We will be lucky if they are done with their rant within the next couple of hours. 12th Grimmauld Place under a Fidelius Charm put there by Dumbledore. Oh! We'll be lucky if Grandpa Pollux does not get a coronary over it. Grandfather Arcturus seemed close enough to one, anyway. Of all the brainless, stupid ideas you have had in your life…. "
Padfoot was so happy to be able to interact with Regulus again that he couldn't avoid grinning like a maniac. He now knew that it had been a stupid idea to mention 12th Grimmauld Place, a Fidelius Charm and Dumbledore within the same phrase in front of Pollux Black. After all, it would have been in his own universe.
The Blacks had never been big fans of Dumbledore but Pollux Black despised him with a passion since he was outvoted and Dumbledore became the next Chief Warlock.
There was no one within the wizarding world with a wider and deeper knowledge of wizarding jurisprudence than Pollux Black and he decided that putting all his knowledge into opposing whatever change of the existing law Dumbledore was proposing or voting in favor of, was going to be his ultimate ambition from that day onwards.
The insults traded onwards an forwards by those two were as memorable as were the sessions when they went head to head like a pair of mating bulls, a pair of very thickheaded, stubborn bulls.
Idle tongues went so far as to say, that if Dumbledore really wanted the old families to vote for more rights for muggleborns he should try to pass a lay against them in the Wizengamot. He could be sure that Pollux Black would vote in favor of it just to spite Dumbledore.
And now this same Dumbledore, or another one similar, Dumbledores being all the same annoying pests in all the existing universes in Pollux Black's mind, was the secret keeper of the ancestral home of the House of Black.
Dumbledore was the secret keeper of 12th Grimmauld Place! . The world was coming to an end! , if this was not a sign of the oncoming Armageddon Pollux Black didn't know what it would be.
The younger generation of Blacks seemed to be used to this and took it as something annoying but nothing unusual. They just busied themselves drinking coffee, or in some cases drinking something a little bit more fortifying, and munching on sandwiches. Trying to stop the rant at this point was as pointless as trying to stop a stampede of buffaloes with calming words, both pointless and utterly idiotic bordering on insane.
When the rant came to an end, Padfoot carried on with the story. There wasn't that much left really. He explained how Bellatrix had been the one responsible for him falling through the Veil. The silence was deafening. A Black going against another Black, a Black being responsible for the death (no one knew that Sirius would survive the veil) of the Head of the Family – and as grandmother Melania put it- all for following an impudent half blood without a proper family name.
" Is she talking about me and Harry? " Padfoot quietly asked.
" No you dolt –said Remus- she's talking about Bellatrix and Voldemort ".
Padfoot couldn't believe his own ears on this one. Was Remus being sarcastic? He did not sound like he was but… one never knew with Moony.
" Padfoot why are you not eating anything? – grandma Irma asked putting a plate of sandwiches on his hand – you definitively look like needing to put some meat on those bones. I've never seen our Sirius looking so unhealthy. "
" Well, you have never seen me after spending twelve years in Azkaban " mentioned Sirius.
" That's a very good idea, we could use the time while he eats to maybe tell him about the obvious differences between both universes –said Alex – You should be the one to start with this Sirius. I know that there are quite a number of things you do not wish to talk about but he deserves to know. "
Sirius was most obviously not pleased about it but Padfoot was he, a he with less luck than he had had during all his life so he started with his tale.
" The first difference seems to be that you grew up with mother and father. Did you live alone with them and Regulus in 12th Grimmauld Place? "
" Well, yes, -said Padfoot quite confused- with whom else should I have been living at the time? "
" Aunt Cassie " Regulus pipped in
" You see, after mother almost smothered Regulus on his crib as a baby, good knows why, grandfather Arcturus decided that having aunt Cassie living with us would deter mother of any other such occurrence. " said Sirius sounding very tired
" Yes –went on Cassiopea- we all were aware that Walburga was quite unhinged, regretfully and as you probably know, being a Black, insanity runs in the family. "
Runs? - Sirius thought- it's more like it gallops
" Wally – Irma carried on the tale – was always a most difficult child with a propensity to tantrums. We actually thought that marrying her to Orion would be such a good idea. After all, Orion was a most phlegmatic child, you see. They would be able to compensate each other. "
" Orion was not phlegmatic, he was bloody lethargic –grunted grandfather Arcturus- but we did not have any better idea at the time. It was not as any of those two had showed any kind of interest in the opposite sex or in anything else anyway. "
" Well –continued Cassie- Orion and Walburga being our problem, we decided that someone should keep an eye on them for the time being. Specially, as the children did seem to be, thanks Merlin, quite on the normal side. That's why neither Sirius nor Regulus used to live alone in 12th Grimmauld Place with their parents, if I had to travel on business, either Irma and Pollux or Arcturus and Melania would come for a visit for the duration of my trip. Or they would go visit with Cygnus and Druella. "
Padfoot could start to see the main difference with his own universe. The Black family had recognized Walburga Black's insanity and had done something against it. Padfoot couldn't avoid feeling very envious about this, he and Regulus felt quite abandoned to their crazy mother's whims in his own universe.
This also explained why this Sirius did not seem to hate his own family. After all it was thanks to them that he didn't have to be afraid of his own mother.
" Another difference seems to be that you did not met James until you went to Hogwarts. Actually I don't think that you got to met many kids your age when you were young from what you have told us " said Regulus
" That's right –said Padfoot with a heavy heart- we weren't allowed. There weren't much kinds which would have been considered as suitable playmates for the heir and spare of the most ancient and honorable house of Black"
" Nonsense! – Cassiopea affirmed- children, specially young ones, need to mingle with other children to grow up and develop a social sense. Of course, parents are there to make sure that they are the right kind of children. It wouldn't do for a black having to mix with any riffraff. We were lucky that in our case, the children from Dorea and Callidora were quite acceptable playmates for Sirius and Regulus and of a similar age. Lucretia's children were not quite of the same social standing but we let Sirius and Regulus to kept contact with them now and again. "
Padfoot noticed that neither Dorea nor Callidora or Lucretia had been mentioned with their new family names. It was quite well known within the family that a Black female tended to consider herself a Black disregarding what the rest of the world, including husbands, thought about it.
But the most important thing about this information was that both Sirius and Regulus had grown up in contact with other magical children and their families. Specially James Potter, Dorea's son, and Frank and Lucretia Longbottom, Callidora's children. They even had been offered the possibility of mingling with Lucretia Prewett's (nee Black) children, Fabian, Gideon and Molly now and again.
" My girls –said Druella- were older and therefore not appropriate playmates for the two of them. They were more like older sisters to them. But we all took care that everything remained under control within 12th Grimmauld Place. "
" Specially –continued Arcturus with a deep-drawn sigh- after Sirius had to go and get himself sorted into Gryffindor. "
" The first Black ever to be sorted in Gryffindor " from Pollux's intonation you would have thought that Sirius was responsible for the last black plague, the disappearance of the roman empire and the sinking of the Titanic all at once. It was obvious that Pollux considered Sirius' sorting into Gryffindor a personal offense to the House of Black.
" Sirius was a most trying child " said Irma
" Yes – agreed Melania- he was a delightful happy go lucky sort of child but most difficult and trying when he set his mind into something. Specially if it was something which he was not supposed to be doing or which wasn't allowed."
" Well –cheekily said Sirius- grandfather, grandmother, grandpa, granny, what can I say, I aim to please! "
" You aim too pleased, in my opinion " said Regulus
Pollux just bended over and head slapped both of them.
" Anyway –surprisingly Remus was the one continuing the tale- things went wrong on our fifth year at Hogwarts. I came to 12th Grimmauld Place to spend the holidays with Sirius.
We Lupins weren't on the same social sphere as the Blacks but still pureblooded and therefore and to a lesser level acceptable to mingle with them. –Padfoot almost snickered, it was so much like Remus to take the mickey of the old gaffers without that they noticed- Sirius and Regulus were most trying the whole time, more than usually so. They seemed to be unable to stop bickering with each other for more than two seconds. We were alone with their mother, when Sirius, the brainless twit, mentioned during dinner that Regulus had a boyfriend, Rabastan Lestrange, Walburga went berserk and threw an Avada Kedavra at Regulus. "
" I didn't think that she would believe me –said Sirius sounding all of fifteen years old again- I was just being an idiot. Reg was mummy's boy and I was sure she would think that I was fibbing and not believe a word –Sirius sounded close to tears- Regulus had been getting on my nerves during the whole holiday because I had been allowed to have Remus visiting and Rabastan hadn't been allowed. I only wanted… I don't even know what I wanted. "
" Kreacher threw itself in front of the hex and took it on my place –said Regulus- it was a miracle that I survived. –Rabastan comforted him- Thankfully Remus as a werewolf had enough strength to subdue mother before she tried again. "
So that's the reason why the family was made aware of Remus condition but did not care about it. He had saved the lives of two family members and this had only been possible because he was a werewolf with unusual strength. -Though Padfoot-
" Kreacher was the only casualty – said Remus- but I am quite sure that had I not been able to subdue the woman, there would have been more. "
" I am afraid that it was all my fault –said Cassiopea sounding very, very old and tired- I had been visiting a wonderful conference in Durmstrang, where Wasily Krum and Igor Poliakoff had the most exciting presentation about genetics applied to the diminishing wizarding population and about inbreeding within the pureblood community. I was so interested and intrinsically upset by their findings that I contacted them after the conference for more information and didn't return home on the date I was supposed to. Arcturus and Pollux were busy with some important voting in the Wizengamot and Cygnus and Orion were away on an important business trip. "
" Nonsense – affirmed Druella- I could have taken a look at things, but I was busy with the preparations for Bella's coming of age ball and didn't either. So no one was really to blame for it."
" That's right –said granny Irma- we all should have kept an eye on things at 12th Grimmauld Place but after so many peaceful years we just became loose with the security and forgot our obligations. "
" It's not really your fault –said Sirius- I was a dolt and didn't think about the consequences. "
" Exactly –said Arcturus- as usual, you didn't think Sirius. "
" Well, -said Pollux- it definitively was the last time he acted so recklessly without thinking first. So it was all for a good cause. "
- End of chapter six-