Chapter 5 - Meet the Uncle

It was soon after Cepheus was born that she decided to contact Sirius Black. She went behind Walburga's back sending him an owl.

Monsieur Sirius Black,

you have never known me and I think you might never have known of me, but I am the wife of your brother, Regulus. I regret to tell you that he died last November at the hands of his master. Your father left us by Christmas. I loved them both dearly. I know you do not care to know, but your mother is well all things considering.

I wrote to you, because I feel it is your right to know that you are an uncle. Your nephew was born the 1st of April and his name is Cepheus Orion Black. If you wish to meet him, please answer this missive.

Sincerely,

Madame Regulus Black

Sirius Black was visiting his good friend James Potter and his pregnant wife when an owl tapped on the window. To his surprise it was addressed to him by an unfamiliar handwriting. He examined it closely and then began casting diagnostic spells to see if the letter harboured in ill intent.

"What is it, Pads?" asked James coming into the kitchen.

"A letter and don't know whose it from," he answered.

"We should let Moony test it," James suggested and soon a young Remus Lupin arrived in Godric's Hollow from home. Casting more spells the letter was deemed safe to open. Sirius did so sipping his tea. His eyes flew over the lines. He spit out his tea in a great spurt.

"What is it, Pads?" asked Remus and Sirius handed him the letter. The werewolf read the letter out loud.

"He has a wife?" James inquired.

"Apparently," Sirius choked out trying to gather himself.

"Well?" Remus pushed.

"Well what?" Sirius said irritably.

"What are you going to do about it?" the werewolf continued courageously. He was a Gryffindor, after all. Sirius thought it a moment and then conjured a quill writing a few lines on a scrap piece of parchment and attaching it to the owl the missive had come with and sent the owl off. The men waited in silence and it didn't take long that an answer came. Sirius opened it.

Regent's Park, Jubilee Gates, London on Friday at twelve. Make sure you're wearing Muggle clothes. I will wear a yellow rain cloak.

"Well?" asked James who felt like he could die of curiosity.

"On Friday in Muggle London", was Sirius' answer.

It was a beautiful spring day in Regent's Park with a hint of rain in the air. In the middle of a Friday there were not many people there, mostly young mothers with their under school-aged children and old couples enjoying the sun after a particularly cold winter. Sirius spotted a female with a yellow rain cloak soon enough after he had arrived. She had a Muggle stroller that was hooded against the weather. She would every now and again lean over the stroller to coo at the young baby that was protected by it. Finally, he changed into his human form and approached her.

She heard him come and turned to look at him. His brother's wife was a beautiful young woman with a mane of brown curls and brown, inquisitive eyes that seemed trusting of him. She looked at him in a way that made Sirius uncomfortable, like she knew everything about him.

"Madame Black?" he asked carefully. She nodded and started walking pushing the stroller. He followed some distance behind her and she didn't stop until they came to a secluded spot in the Winter Gardens. She pushed her hood down and smiled at him.

"Sirius Black, it is finally nice to see you so healthy."

His eyebrows rose to his hairline when hearing her cryptic remark.

"It is nice to meet you too, but it is hardly fair that you know my name, but I don't know yours."

Her face darkened slightly. She thought about it long and hard before she nodded to herself.

"My name is Herminia, but nobody can know that. It is best that the Dark Lord not know much about me or my son," she said and Sirius shivered at the name she used.

"I would have known you in Hogwarts. Why haven't I?"

She smiled.

"That much is common knowledge. I came to Hogwarts only to finish my schooling, I was in the same house as your brother."

"You hardly seem like the consummate Slytherin," he observed. She laughed. Her voice was like a bubbly stream and he could understand why his brother had married her.

"I had other influences," was her only answer. Then she continued, "Would you like to see him?"

Sirius nodded and watched as she removed the covering from the stroller and tenderly lifted a small human from it supporting its head that was covered in black down. She cradled the child in her arms and smiled lovingly tears forming at the corners of her eyes. Sirius came carefully closer. The boy was beautiful and he could not find it in his heart to resent the child for living in his mother's influence.

"You know, your mother is not as bad as I always thought," she said in her odd way, like she was speaking of a time that they had been friends. "Would you like to hold him?"

And he did. He felt proud to be the uncle of such a beautiful creature. He crooned to the boy who had opened his storm-grey eyes observing the man holding him with rapt curiosity.

"Your mother doesn't know it, but Cepheus is a half-blood," she said as if to herself. He looked up at her in surprise.

"You are a Muggle-born and sorted into Slytherin and you married into the Black family? How in the earth did you manage that?"

She smiled at his bewilderment.

"I couldn't trick the hat, but aside from you and your brother, everybody else thinks I am the daughter of a French pureblood witch and half-blood wizard," she explained nonchalantly.

"Even that's pretty unpure for mother," Sirius exclaimed.

"Yes, I thought so too. But like I said, she's not as bad as you think. I'm pretty sure the Lestranges and Malfoys didn't approve, but who are they to argue. Severus has been the only support I've had after... After he was gone," she struggled to say.

"Snivellus?" Sirius said.

"Yes, Severus Snape. The very same man, but you are very wrong about him. I know things that even you could not dispute if I could tell anyone, but I can't. He is a better man than many others I have me. But soon, we will be safe for a while," she said heatedly and whispered the last part as Cepheus began squirming and whimpering in his arms. She took the child and sat on a nearby bench spelling her robes open to feed the baby. Her breast was swelled with the milk she carried and the baby latched on the her greedily. It was a strangely intimate image with a beauty to its naturality.

"I should go," he said.

"Yes, you should," she said concentrating on her baby. "Tell of this to no one, not even your Marauders. No one can know of Cepheus, or me."

With her last words she looked directly and expectantly at him.

"By my magic, I won't," he promised and she nodded, satisfied. "Thank you for letting me meet him. Could I see him again?"

"We shall see," she said and he nodded to turn. He heard a familiar voice and turned to find that she was gone with no sign of her ever being there.

Sirius returned to his friends refusing to say anything about the visit or his subsequent nephew.

Hermione apparated to the kitchen of Grimmauld Place where she found her mother-in-law crying. She quickly arranged Cepheus in her lap and set her hand on the old woman's shoulder. Kreacher was there trying to reconcile his mistress, but she seemed beyond any help.

"Walburga, what's the matter?" she asked in a soft tone. Mrs. Black looked up at her and stopped sobbing abruptly.

"Where were you?" she asked, her tone harsh.

"I took Cepheus out for a bit. We went to Regent's Park. I left Kreacher with a note for you," she explained calmly. Mrs. Black had become unstable after the loss of her favoured son and beloved husband. Hermione had grown tolerant of her abrupt mood changes.

"I... I..." Walburga began and collapsed into the chair. At that point Hermione decided to make her choice known.

"Walburga, I have taken the liberty of purchasing a cottage in the Upper Highlands, far away from everything," she informed the woman.

"You are leaving me."

Mrs. Black's defeated words were not so much a question that a statement.

"And you are going to take Cepheus away from me," Mrs. Black continued.

"Don't be silly. You are coming with us. We are all going. This house has too many memories and I wouldn't feel good about you staying here. But I don't want to be here wallowing in all the pain and happiness," Hermione said. Walburga seemed to understand.

"Kreacher has already gathered all our things. We can leave now or tomorrow which ever you wish," Hermione stated. Mrs. Black got up and said,

"Now."

Hermione nodded, took Walburga's hand and disapparated.

They came to an old and empty moor with nothing more than grass and wind. There was a gash in the earth far off in the distance that had filled with water many millennia ago. Walburga seemed slightly puzzled by the emptiness. Hermione took a parchment out of her robes and gave it to the older woman who read it out loud.

"The Moor Cottage is north from Loch Choire, Scotland."

As soon as the words have been a beautiful white walled cottage with a black tile roof stood in front of them. Kreacher was already there opening the door for them. The yard was surrounded by an age-old fence made out natural stones found from the very same moor. The walkway from the iron gate to the heavy oak door was paved with gravel. The yard had a small herb garden with flower boxes on each side of the door under the windows. It was colder there than back in London and winter was reluctantly withdrawing.

When they stepped into the cottage they came first to a small foyer that extended into a comfortable sitting room, formal dining area and library being magically extended. The cottage was surprisingly spacious. The colours were natural and soothing making the house seem bright. There was a kitchen on the ground floor and a bathroom with a small shower, also a laundry room and a pantry and a room Hermione called the study. She had also reserved a small private space for Kreacher with a bed and a bedside table with pictures of his favourite members of the family. The house elf beamed while Walburga scoffed only slightly at the comforts Hermione had provided.

The stairs were narrow, but lead to a common area that lead to three bedrooms. One of them was for Walburga a large room with a four-poster bed and small, but functional en suite. The furniture was of mahogany, and the room was coloured in cream, brown and gold. The second room was the master bedroom that Hermione used. It wasn't much bigger from Walburga's room, but it was more amenably located in regards to the third room which was meant for Cepheus. At the current moment it was furnished as a nursery with a charmed star sky. The master bedroom was coloured with dark hues of green, blue and silver and it had a door to the main bathroom with also door from the common area. It had a bath and a shower.

"It is beautiful. Thank you, Herminia," Walburga said over dinner as they settled in for the evening.