Chapter 6 - Why the Portrait of Mrs Black Screams
Hermione refused to acknowledge time passing, because she knew what was coming. Mrs. Black didn't protest against staying isolated in their little cottage on the moor. They loved the Moor Cottage. Kreacher would leave every now and again to get provisions and they would walk together on the moor overseeing the loch. The only sign that anything changed was that Cepheus grew and Hermione didn't want him to.
The only one to ever visit them was Severus Snape to whom Hermione had revealed the location of the Moor Cottage and he sometimes stayed overnight if he wanted peace from the world.
The only dates she acknowledged were her birthday, the birthday of Walburga, Regulus and Orion, the days they died and her anniversary. All Hallow's Eve in 1980 was something that Hermione thought as bittersweet. It was after all a turning point in her life, the change between her relationship with her dead husband and the night of his disappearance. It was one occasion that Severus was visiting them and he let Hermione cry on his shoulder until she fell asleep.
Cepheus began manifesting magic on his first birthday while having a tantrum he flung his birthday cake into the face of Severus. It made the small boy laugh with delight and Severus smiled when Vanishing the mess. It appeared that flinging food at people's faces was Cepheus' favourite past time.
The women did not become stir crazy, but it wasn't until after All Hallow's Eve in 1981 that everything changed. Hermione knew it was nearing, but distracted herself in taking care of her son and reading. Walburga noticed, but didn't say anything. On the morning of the November the 1st Moor Cottage received a rare visitor, an owl that was directed to Walburga.
Dear Mrs. Black,
we regret to inform you that your son Sirius Black has been captured and sentenced to Azkaban for the murder of wizard Peter Pettigrew and eleven Muggles.
At your service,
Rufus Scrimgeour
Chief Auror
"I always new that boy was no good," Walburga grumbled burning the parchment in her hands.
"What was it, Walburga?" Hermione asked knowing very well.
"A letter from the esteemed Chief Auror informing that my son has finally snapped and has been sent to where he belongs," she answered grimly.
"I have some errands to run. Would you watch over Ceph for me?" Hermione asked suddenly and her mother-in-law looked up at her with a great amount of curiosity.
"Errands? Surely we don't need anything that Kreacher can't get us."
"No, I need to visit someone," she answered.
"Who?"
Hermione contemplated for a moment the wiseness of telling the woman.
"The Headmaster of Hogwarts," she finally said.
"Dumbledore? Whatever for, dear?"
"I will tell you when I come back," she answered. Walburga nodded and made a dismissive hand motion. Hermione took her cue and disapparated from the foyer.
Hogwarts had not changed at all since she had last seen it. Se couldn't quite get her head around the fact that she was twenty-one and going to meet Dumbledore. She walked up to the castle with a certain amount of trepidation and stepping into the entrance hall decided to go to the dungeons instead. She knocked on the door and almost laughed when the answer was a familiar "Enter."
"Those robes look very nice on you," Hermione said as she stepped in and noticed that the Potions' Master was grading papers and hadn't looked up. They hadn't seen each other since her anniversary. He had been too busy to visit on her birthday. He looked up with an astonished face, but he soon schooled his features.
"Herminia," he said as a greeting. "It is very nice to see you, but what are you doing here? Today of all days."
"Well, the day is why I am visiting," she answered carefully. "I need to speak of to Dmbledore of what happened."
"How did you hear?"
"I knew. Remember when I told you there would be a safe time for me to tell you who I am."
His nod encouraged her to continue.
"The Dark Lord has fallen on Halloween. I know how and I know that you are not fine," she said. His face turned thunderous.
"What are you speaking of, Herminia?" he hissed rather angrily.
"Lily Evans," she said simply. He opened his mouth to say something, but Hermione interrupted him, "Regulus did not tell me. I knew and I will tell you more when we go and speak to the Headmaster."
He opted not to say anything and got up gesturing for her to follow. Hermione knew she has offended him, but could not be greatly bothered by it at that time.
"Pop tarts," he gritted through his teeth when they came to the stone gargoyle that hid the rotating stairs to the Headmaster's office. They entered the office that remained always the same under its current occupant.
"Albus," Severus greeted the old man who looked up from his work and was rather surprised to see that the Potions master had company.
"Miss Chastain! It is delightful to see you again under such happy circumstances," the Headmaster said.
"Good day, Headmaster. I am known as Madame Black these days," she answered. "And my tidings are rather not as happy as you would think."
"Oh?" the Headmaster inquired.
"It's a rather long story," she said and the Headmaster invited them to sit down.
The first time Severus Snape saw Herminia Chastain he had decided that she was beautiful, smart and that he was envious of Regulus Black. She had been happy and young on the arm of her lover and he had wondered if she knew who Regulus served. The two seemed untroubled.
Then Regulus had introduced her proudly as a French pureblood. He had seen the doubt in the eyes of the Lestranges and the Malfoys who all worked on a façade of aristocratic politeness. Severus did not need to pretend to like her, she was intelligent, he saw the gleam in her eyes, but she kept her opinions to herself like a proper Slytherin bride. Regulus had had every right to be proud.
What had surprised Severus most of all was the revelation that the father of Herminia Chastain was a half-blood and she was by no means pompous or arrogant, but exuded a quiet sort of confidence. He decided that there was something odd about her and her background, a thought that Regulus had shared when they had discussed her, but he had not been forthcoming with more information.
It had hurt him a surprising amount when she had announced that she was pregnant, but he had been happy with the reaction this had gotten from Regulus who had changed greatly.
Then he had died and left behind a sickly father who died soon, a childless mother and a pregnant young widow. They had moved away from the Most Noble and Ancient House of Black to Moor Cottage a week after the birth of Cepheus Orion Black, a child Severus loved very much and he was the closest the little boy had for a godfather of even a father and Herminia had never discouraged him of this assumption.
Teaching and the war had taken most of his time during the last year and he hadn't been able to see the boy and his mother who he considered a close friend as often as he would of liked. He had been moved with her trust in him, since he has been the only one aside of the Blacks and their house elf to have access to the cottage.
Now he was seething with anger. She had waltzed into his office telling him that she knew everything about him, things he had never spoken to anyone. He watched as she sat down, but he refused the Headmaster's invitation. Herminia took a deep breath to bace herself and then astonished the two men.
"My name is, or rather was, Hermione Jean Granger and I am a Gryffindor Muggle-born witch born in the year 1979."
Whatever he had thought she was was completely dissolved in those few words.
"Pardon me?" he managed.
"Yes, I think we would like to hear an explanation," Dumbledore concurred. She breathed deeply once more.
"I came here from the year 1998, because of a message left to me by Severus Snape with a special time turner given to me by you, Albus Dumbledore, in 1996. I was in my time the best friend of Harry Potter," she announced.
"And the hat sorted you into Slytherin?" Severus asked a bit incredulously not knowing how to react to the news. "Surely it is impossible. A Muggle-born sorted into Slytherin is unheard of."
"Yes, I would like to hear that," Dumbledore continued to agree.
"The Sorting Hat knew all right and... Regulus, before he died," she said.
"Walburga is going to have a stroke," Severus mumbled. Yes, Mrs. Black was a pureblood extremist to the core and he had been surprised that she had accepted one as muddy as a daughter of a pureblood and a half-blood marry into the Black family.
"You mustn't tell her. Cepheus..." She didn't finish her sentence. Dumbledore cleared his throat.
"This is very peculiar indeed," the old wizard said.
"You think so?" Severus sneered. Hermione Black fidgeted in her seat. The silence that fell above them was quite pressing.
"I should be going. Walburga doesn't like babysitting for too long," Madame Black said and moved to get up, but she was stopped by a penetrating stare from the Headmaster.
"Will you tell us what the future holds?" Dumbledore asked.
"I really don't know what you already know and what I should tell you. I do not know what the source of all of your information is," she said. Dumbledore nodded.
"Look, I came here accidentally-on purpose. The best I can do is to make sure that everything goes as it should. I must go home now, I miss my son," Hermione said and got up.
"Have a pleasant journey home," Dumbledore said unsure of what to do to the young woman to tie her into their folds.
Hermione walked the corridor, but was yanked back by Severus Snape whose normally indifferent façade was stormy. Scowling heavily, he hissed, "You knew they were going to die?"
Hermione looked into his face searchingly.
"I did, but don't think it does not affect me as strongly as it does you. I could have ensured Harry Potter a happy family life, a normal childhood, or maybe not. This is how it is meant to be. We don't have to like it, but I cannot be the one to be responsible for the Dark Lord's victory if I meddle," she explained heatedly trying to regain the use of her arm that was turning numb under Severus' tight grip.
"You lied. To your husband, no less. Why should you be trusted to just walk away? How do I know you are telling the truth?" he insisted.
"Regulus never believed my story. I am a notoriously bad liar. At least, that's what I am told. He never pushed me to tell who I was, but I told him the whole truth the night he left me. I hoped... I wanted to stop him, to not go, but I knew it must be done. He asked me if he was to die and he went anyway. He never met his son. He broke our hearts."
Hermione's voice was failing her and tears were streaming down her face. Severus looked at her with a kind of mortified expression. He did not know how to handle sad women.
"Did he never tell you that he had his doubts about my story?" she persisted. Severus only nodded mutely and let go of her arm. Hermione didn't stay to wait for any continuation of the conversation. She flew out of the castle, over its grounds and to the Apparition point to disappear with a crack.
Walburga found her in the sitting room curled on to the settee her whole body wracking with muted sobs. The old woman sat next to her gently touched her shoulder only to have her flinch away.
"I didn't hear you come in," she said softly. Hermione continued sobbing, but uncurled and embraced her mother-in-law crying into her robes. The older woman rocked her gently. At that moment she was not needed by her grandson who was sleeping soundly in his room having a nap. "What's the matter, dear?"
After some time Hermione was able to compose herself and she withdrew a little and crossed her hands into her lap.
"I visited Hogwarts today and it reminded me of Regulus," she murmured. Mrs. Black nodded mutely. They sat in silence until Hermione lifted her gaze and met the eyes of Walburga. Cepheus' grandmother was taken aback by the determined look in her eyes and it frightened by this and had a sudden feeling that everything was about to change.
"Walburga, there is something I must tell you," her daughter-in-law and continued. "I am neither French, nor in anyway related to a wizarding family in any country or in any time excepting the Black family through matrimony to your son."
Walburga kept her face neutral.
"Herminia, I... I don't understand. What do you mean?" As the words escaped Mrs. Black the old witch understood and stood abruptly.
"Regulus married a Mudblood!" she hissed. "You have seduced my son."
Hermione also got up.
"There is more and I refuse to let you leave before you have heard the whole story," she said. Walburga snarled menacingly, but Hermione did not back up. She did not move out of the sitting room. She was too intrigued, even the story of the vile creature who claimed to be her Regulus' wife. Her wonderful Regulus.
"In my time, I was known as Hermione Jean Granger," the Mudblood said.
"In your time? What do you mean 'in your time'?" Mrs. Black asked mildly confused, but with a sense of dread growing inside her.
"I was born in 1979," the young woman said simply as if it explained everything. "I was transported here from two decades in the future."
Walburga opened her mouth to say something, but the Mudblood interrupted her like the poorly bred specimen she was.
"I chose none of it. It was the Sorting Hat that placed me in Slytherin and I knew, I just knew, that I would not survive a day in the house if it was known I was Muggle-born. There are things that must happen, things that will happen. Regulus never truly believed my story, but he loved me, regardless, and when I told him, he was only more resolved to go off on his quest and defeat the Dark Lord. His death was not in vain."
Hermione fervently told Walburga Black and tears had begun again to stream down her face and her voice cracked with the last sentence, but she was not finished. Mrs. Black said nothing as if sensing this.
"His death was not in vain," she repeated more firmly. "He wanted a beautiful world for Cepheus. You know that I'm a Gryffindor, but the Sorting Hat has his own mind. Apparently I could have been a Ravenclaw, but it was something that had to happen."
She shook her head to stop babbling.
"Chastain was the name of my grandparents. They were- are French. And Orion knew. I told him before he died. He knew you wouldn't approve. That is why he kept it secret from you."
She stopped abruptly not knowing how to continue. Walburga was speechless. Her whole family was nothing she had expected. She felt betrayed, but refused to acknowledge the facts about Orion and Regulus, all though she heard and recognised them. They had never shared her passionate opinions. And now Sirius was in Azkaban and Regulus was dead. Cepheus is a half-blood, she thought ruefully and shook her head seating herself on the settee.
They were there for a long moment, while Hermione regarded the older witch with apprehension and Walburga sat dazed buried deep in her thoughts trying to comprehend all the information she had been given and how to react. The silence stretched between them. Walburga got up suddenly.
"Get out. You are no longer welcomed by the family of Black," she said. Hermione looked at her for a moment uncomprehending. "Get out. Get out. Get OUT. GET OUT!" she shrieked. "Stains of dishonour, filthy half-breeds, children of filth... MUDBLOOD! SCUM! CREATURES OF DIRT!" *
Mrs. Black's words that would later be heard repeated by her portrait and Number 12 Grimmauld Place snapped Hermione out of her reverie. She ran up the stairs and grabbed her sleeping son who woke with a start and was really too surprised to begin crying, then she flew down the stairs and apparated with a crack once she was passed the wards.
* Excerpt From: Rowling, J.K. "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix." Pottermore Limited. iBooks.
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