Chapter 8
The full moon proved Remus was no longer a Werewolf. When he saw Julian the next day he had to hold himself back from sweeping the boy up into a crushing hug. Sirius immediately started helping him turn into his animagus form and soon Moony the large tawny wolf was joining Padfoot out in the nearby wood at nights, scaring the local wildlife.
The years leading up to the arrival of the Hogwarts letters were very busy indeed. With Sirius and now Remus there all three children benefited from a better education into the magical world. Such things as animagus training; occlumency and a bit of legilimency; a better understanding of potions; history of magical and non magical beings; some charm work to help around the house; and other things both taught and not taught at Hogwarts.
Julian's artwork became a hit during a contest at school. The winner's work would be sent to an agent and put on display. The agent was so impressed by Julian's work that they asked him to do a couple more. By the time he was out of school he'd made himself a small career with his pictures. It allowed more of an income into the house, which meant a few more luxuries.
Now that he was out of school Julian started a hunt for the horcruxes. He spent some time researching locations using the links and scouting areas checking for traps before actually starting to collect the pieces. Using what he learned, Demon's first target was the Gaunt home, Voldemort's, or should that be Tom Riddle's mother's family name. Julian returned triumphant with a ring cleansed of its soul piece, and a bad taste in his mouth. His first find led to an incredible discovery. Jonathan noticed the symbol on the black stone of the ring and he knew he'd seen it before. After checking with his contacts word came back that the symbol was that of the Deathly Hallows, a trio of powerful items rumoured to be given to three brothers by Death himself. Stunned and quite excited, Jonathan used the information known about the ring to check if it was actually linked to these items. A quick twist of the stone and he had the pleasure of a quick visit from his passed grandmother. A giddy conversation later and he had his answer. The stone on the ring was actually the one spoke about in legends. The Resurrection Stone. Jonathan could already feel the pull to use it again, so it was agreed that such a powerful item would be given to the Goblins to be placed in a high security vault, to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands.
While at the Goblins, Julian told them about the horcruxes, and that one of the links seemed to come from the general direction of the bank. The Goblins understandably were not happy that such dark magic could be under their care, and immediately had the vaults of death eaters scanned. They hit gold in the Lestrange vault, and picked up a cup once belonging to Helga Hufflepuff. As punishment for having the not only stolen item, but cursed item in their vault, the Lestranges were deducted a large sum of money, enough that it almost wiped out their finances. The Goblins weren't bothered though, since the only Lestranges left were in Azkaban. Demon was able to clense Hufflepuff's cup right there in the bank, both impressing and terrifying the Goblins. The cup would be placed in the Hufflepuff vault to await an heir.
Another link had a clear destination of Hogwarts, which was a problem as getting in there would be difficult, Demon or not. Plus, Hogwarts was a large castle, it could be hidden anywhere. Demon decided to have a go anyway, making his way there and hiding in the forbidden forest to plan his next move.
He didn't expect a Phoenix to flash in front of him.
Fawkes had detected the dark aura and immediately headed to it's location to deal with the threat. Only once he arrived he found someone who wasn't after the children, or the staff, but rather looking for something just as dark. Wary, Fawkes allowed Demon inside the castle, and remained with him as he searched for the horcrux. When they reached the seventh floor Demon just knew something was there. Fawkes, realising what was happening, asked Hogwarts to help. She responded by opening a hidden door, and inside, amongst the junk of years past, was a diadem. A diadem once belonging to Rowenda Ravenclaw of all people. Demon saw to the soul piece, then turned and nodded to Fawkes in thanks for letting him in. The phoenix bowed back, more than a little relieved when the being then flew out the window into the night, leaving the diadem behind. With a slight shudder, Fawkes took the headpiece and flew to the Ravenclaw common room, where he replaced it with the fake one of the statue's head. Let that be a surprise for the next person wanting to examine it.
The next one proved less of a problem. Dobby had been either extremely lucky or extremely unlucky to come across Demon sneaking into the Malfoy mansion. He however was a brave little Elf and nervously asked Demon to sever the bonds between him and his family, in exchange for bringing Demon the nasty diary it appeared to be looking for. Demon agreed, sensing the abuse the Elf had suffered, and then decided to take it with him back home. It was left to Dobby to explain why he was there, and what had happened. Sirius took a shine to the little guy and offered Dobby work, if he wanted it. The Elf, having all but resigned himself to a slow death from the severed bond, but just so glad to be away from his horrible masters, jumped ast the chance.
The last one came from somewhere close to King's Cross station. As Demon pinpointed the location, Sirius realised that the horcrux was in his old home. While Rose stayed with the younger children, the others took a trip to the old house, and immediately saw they had a lot of work ahead of them, not so much in finding the horcrux, but in making the home feel livable again. Sirius hated the place, but he had to do something with it, even if it was just cleaning up and selling it on. The House Elf who lived there was a bitter old thing who hated Sirius. The feeling was neutral. Being a bit sneaky, Sirius ordered the Elf to move to the Malfoy home and replace Dobby, and not to tell the Malfoy's anything about him or why Dobby wasn't there any more. Kretcher was happy with the arrangement as he liked Narcissa, and so took off without another word. The men then left Demon to search, and he soon returned with a gaudy looking locket. He had also taken some time to clear out any pests lingering around the house. Remus was the one who realised that the locket once belonged to Salazar Slytherin. There had been a definate pattern to what items Voldemort had used to make horcruxes. Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and now Slytherin. The ressurection ring as well. His diary must have been the first, a kind of experiment to see if it worked, and then he looked for better treasures to use. After asking Dobby to take his time cleaning the place, the group took the locket to the Goblins, who placed it in Slytherin's vault. It allowed the adults some relief to know most if not all the horcruxes were now gone. Julian more than the others, as it took him ages to get the disgusting taste out his mouth each time.
Grimmauld Place took a bit of time and plenty of help to clean, and though Sirius at first was happy to be rid of it, once done even he was impressed enough that he decided to keep it as a home. It allowed for himself and Remus to move in, after a shopping trip to get a protesting Remus a brand new wardrobe worth of clothes. Of course the Meadows were frequent visitors, so much so that to the children Grimmauld Place was like a second home. Evangeline especially loved to explore the old house. She even befriended a Boggart that had snuck in, giggling when it shifted into a variety of scary shapes. The adults, stunned of course as they watched the little girl play with the shadowy being, decided it was due to Evangeline having the same Demon blood as her daddy. Thankfully the girl appeared to be a carrier, rather than have active blood. Even Julian agreed, one Demon was enough.
As Lord Black, Sirius now had a few duties to sort out. Bellatrix's marriage was dissolved and she was kicked out the family. Not that it really mattered but Sirius found it funny that her husband now had to pay back the dowery for her, which would wipe clean the remainder of the Lestrange vaults. Andromeda Tonks was reinstated, along with her husband Ted and her daughter Nymphadora, who once introduced to the Meadows, took an immediate shine to Julian. At two years younger she was his first female friend, and that was the excuse he would give for his blushes whenever she hugged or kissed him on the cheek. Narcissa and her son was left in the family for the time being. Sirius remembered her protests at marrying Lucius, which was a large point in her favour. During the meeting at Gringotts he got to meet her son, and while Draco was as arrogant and annoying as his father, that was because he was taught to be so.
The Weasley family played a big part in the children's lives. And they were happy to take another oath to ensure Ebony's identity would remain a secret. During the summers the children were introduced to Bill and Charlie and all became fast friends, especially Julian who now had people his own age to talk to in regards to magical subjects. Down the road from the Weasleys lived two magical families, the Lovegoods and the Diggorys. Amos was very much in Dumbledore's camp so they couldn't really let him or his wife in on much of the Meadow's secrets, though the children were happy to play with their son Cedric who was roughly ages with the twins. Evangeline and little Luna Lovegood on the other hand took an immediate shine to each other, and Xenophilius and his wife were happy to have their daughter included in the other children's activities. Selene Lovegood was a potion enthusiast and she and Rose were often found in the Lovegood or the Meadow basement tinkering away with ingrediants and recipies. It was fortunate they had become such good friends, for when Luna was nine there was an explosion in the Lovegood basement. The group rushed down to find Rose, seriously injured, dragging half dead Selene up the stairs, managing to get them both away in the nick of time. They were both taken to St Mungos where thankfully they made a full recovery. It was noted afterwards that bark from the murkwood tree, slime from the poison dark frog and fairy dust did not mix.
The children spent time between the Meadows home, the Burrow, the Lovegood home, Grimmauld Place and the Tonks home. Holidays were spent together, as were birthdays and Christmases. They became a tight knit group, so much so that when Ebony began to talk to snakes not long after his tenth birthday, no one really minded and most found it fascinating. Sirius at first was a little unsure, but calmed when Jonathan explained that being a parseltongue did not make a person evil. Rather it was the way they used the ability. As each child grew, ideas for the future arose. Julian already had his art, but took up jobs in animal shelters, stables and anything else to do with both magical and non magical animals. He had also achieved one of the highest levels in his martial arts class. Bill had been snapped up right after graduation to work as a curse breaker for the Goblins. Charlie had a passion for Dragons, and managed to get a position as a handler on a reserve in Romania. Nymphadora wanted to be an Auror and was giddy with happiness to be taken on as an apprentice under one Alistair Moody, also known as Mad-Eye Moody, the summer right before Ebony, Evangeline and Ron would start Hogwarts. Despite being slightly klutzy, she was a natural at defence and her talents shone in the training program.