Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or anything what you can recognize from the books. I do however own the plot of this story but I don't have profits because of it unless you count improving my English as a profit.
Prewiev: he Blacks at the Sanctuary. Secrets are running around like hares in the spring. More orgins of Black family thrust here and there. Someone starts 'too old, too poor and too dangerous' talk and it's not Remus. Mirzam decides that she has enough and in the end she plays matchmaker.
Read, enjoy and review (because I love to read your criticism and as long as you are logged in or I have your email I'm answering to your questions).
Thanks to Anja, my wonderful beta.
Chapter eighteen: 5th of June.
Gemma Verascez was an early bird, so when she woke up on the 5th of June at her usual time of six o'clock, she rushed to the bathroom for a quick shower. Then she dressed in her favourite jeans and red t-shirt and went to the kitchen.
She smiled fondly at the sight of Mrs and Mr Black asleep on a transfigured sofa in front of a fire that must have died at least about an hour ago. Mrs Black was a kind and helpful person and Mr Black was a challenging chessmaster. Actually the whole family was great. Mirzam was very lucky to have married into this family. She shook herself back to reality, went over to the counter and started preparing a pot of coffee, all the while humming her favourite song, Greensleeves.
"Gemma, you are a sight for sore eyes," she heard a male voice from the doorway.
She turned around and smiled at Regulus before she said, "Couldn't sleep?"
"You have no idea," he murmured as he came closer. "I don't know what I was thinking when I decided to go for a walk instead of going to bed. I feel like an ice-cube. So, where are our dear, older siblings?"
"I haven't seen them since they left the house with your father. He is back, but I didn't check if they returned with him," Gemma constituted.
"That feast on the table is for our guests, isn't it?" Regulus queried as he leaned with his back against the counter about a foot away from her.
"Yes, coffee?" Gemma offered as she poured coffee into two big mugs and added three spoonfuls of sugar to each.
"I love you," Regulus stated as he accepted the mug from her hands.
"You should marry a coffee machine," Gemma snickered.
"Won't keep me warm at night," he chuckled and blew at the steam.
"Coffee would," Gemma giggled. "Toast?"
"Yes, please," he nodded. "Coffee definitely would keep me awake. Women are like coffee, you know," he said impishly. "Dark, sinful, sometimes bitter, sometimes sickeningly sweet. Sometimes ice cold, sometimes so hot that they can burn you down to your very core," he paused and then added in lowered voice. "Addicting, tempting," he set his cup on the counter and looked down at her. "When you drink them, you can't decide whether you want to sip them slowly, enjoying their taste, or you want to swallow them in one gulp and then start again and again … you want to feel this warmth, this bitter-sweet mix that can keep you up all night long," he leaned closer, so their faces were only about three inches apart, and she felt a blush making its way on her cheeks. "When you see one, you want to know what it tastes like …"
"You want to know how it tastes?" she supplied tentatively, feeling like she was made of liquid fire.
She simply couldn't tear her eyes from his. They were almost black like dark chocolate, the kind she liked so much. Bitter, but still with a certain sweetness to it, a perfect combination.
"Stop me, please," he implored, making it sound like an actual plea.
Their faces were only an inch apart, she felt his hot breath ghosting over her cheeks.
"I don't want to," she whispered.
His lips descended upon hers in a very gentle, tentative kiss. He froze, waiting for her reaction, and when she started to respond as she raised her arms to wind them around his neck, he licked along her lips cautiosly, When she opened up just a bit, he gently sucked her tongue into his mouth while grabbing her around the waist and pulling her closer to him. Sweet Merlin, what a kiss, she thought. She felt so hot, she was about to melt away like butter in the sun.
"Don't mind me," a voice drawled from the doorway. "I'll just fix myself breakfast while trying not to have my eyes burned out."
They tore away from each other and glanced towards the door, where Severus was standing, smirking like he had just pranked someone.
"I will check upon the children," she declared and ran out of the kitchen.
Severus woke up quite refreshed from his nap. After checking upon five cauldrons of wolfsbane potion, he had set up in the room next to his, he decided to have a strong cup of coffee and a toast before getting back to work.
On his way downstairs he peeked into Sirius' and Mirzam's bedroom only to find it empty and the bed untouched. He had expected to find the kitchen empty except for the the house-elves, so when he saw Regulus and Gemma kissing at the counter next to the stove, he stopped dead in his tracks.
It seemed like he walked into a kiss scene from a romance novel. They were clinging to each other like there was no tomorrow and Regulus' left hand was placed rather visibly below Gemma's waist.
"Don't mind me," he drawled. "I'll just fix myself breakfast while trying not to have my eyes burned out ."
His words seemed to snapped them out of their kiss, they jumped apart and stared at him like deer caught in the headlights, as Lily used to call this particular expression.
"I will check on the children," Gemma uttered nervously as she rushed past him and out of the kitchen.
Regulus looked down at the floor like it was the most interesting thing in entire world.
"She is Mirzam's sister," Severus stated. "Keep in mind that if you hurt her, you would wish that our dear, old Dark Lord got to you first," he smirked at him.
"I have no intention to hurt her," Regulus growled. "I'm not you, Severus."
"No, you are not," Severus agreed, trying to stay calm even though he wanted to hex Regulus into next week right then and there. "You are you. Without the Dark Lord breathing down your neck you became rather careless and hedonistic, didn't you? And being reduced into an almost squib is quite frustrating, isn't it? She is Mirzam's sister. If this is a fling,you would do well to end it before you hurt her," Severus snarled before he turned away and walked out of the kitchen.
Orion woke up to the kitchen door slamming shut. He gingerly opened one eye and looked down at Walburga, who seemed to wake up, too.
"Wonder who just left the kitchen ever so politely," Orion murmured sleepily.
"What time it is?" Walburga groaned.
Orion glanced at the clock on the mantelpiece. "Half past six. Time to feed the werewolves before we start moving them."
"When we are supposed to transfer them?" she inquired.
"At eight. Sirius and Mirzam should be waiting for us there. Everything should be prepared," he implied.
"What is that Sanctuary place?" Walburga wondered as she stood up.
"Abandoned house of the Black family," Orion replied truthfully. After all, the Sanctuary had been abandoned for centuries. "Needed a few cleaning charms and wards for the full moon."
"I don't remember any of the family's houses being named Sanctuary, Orion," Walburga insisted.
"Because it's a very old place that wasn't mentioned in any wills of Black family members for ages. I stumbled upon it by accident. But it's the safest place I could think off, Wally," he appeased her as he stood up and banished the sofa they had slept on.
"You are secretive," Walburga pointed out.
"I just don't like repeating myself," Orion sighed. "I know for a fact that the family will be asking the same questions once they see it and trust me, you will see it."
"So what we should expect once we get there?" Walburga pried.
"Ghosts, two of them," Orion admitted, feeling that it would be better to warn her about Sirius and Mirzam beforehand. "They are about a thousand years old and technically they run the Sanctuary on their own. It's an old, married couple, our ancestors, very persistent and very talkative."
"I've never heard about ghosts in our family," Walburga demurred pensively as if she was trying to recall.
"They are the only ones, Wally. Actually they are our direct ancestors, those who started this family," Orion announced.
"The first members of the Black family?" Walburga paused in shock before she narrowed her eyes and glared at him, "How long did you know about them?"
"A couple of years," he tried to deflect.
"Since?"
"1945," he confessed.
"That's a couple of years?" Walburga hissed. "Are you daft? Why didn't you mention them before?"
"Because I was sure that the family wasn't going to like them and that they wouldn't like the family. They might be deceased, but their minds are working perfectly fine," Orion claimed.
"Why weren't we going to like them?"
"Because, my dear Wally, the Black family back then was a family of pure-bloods, extremely narrow minded pure-bloods and trust me, engaging in a philosophical discussion about pure-bloods with two muggle-borns, who were around longer than Quidditch, would finish this family off," he explained.
"Muggle-borns?" she speculated. "I always thought that Malikiyy 'Regulus' Black had a pure-blood mother and a half-blood father as it is told in the family legends."
"Malikiyy had two muggle-born parents, Wally. He is wrongfully named as the first Black in the family, because the git, who made the family tree we have upstairs, remembered only him. He also failed to mention that Malikiyy had eleven older brothers and three older sisters," Orion constituted.
"So these two ghost are the very first members of the family. What are their names, Ori?" Walburga acknowledged.
"I will let you guess," Orion chuckled. "The hint is that two members of the family are named after them."
"Arcturus?" Walburga surmised as she moved to the table and started enlarging the food.
"No."
"Pollux?"
"No."
"Not Regulus, as such it means no Malikiyy. Orion perhaps?"
"No."
"Cygnus?"
"Phineas?"
"No."
"Alphard?"
"No."
"Sirius?"
"Indeed," Orion grinned. "Lord Sirius Orion Black."
"And his wife is? Cassiopeia?"
"No."
"Andromeda? Irma? Melania?"
"No. No. No."
"Violetta? Ursula? Elladora? Lucretia?"
"No. No. No. No. Keep trying. One more clue, she belongs to the family because of marriage," Orion enjoyed stringing her along.
"Hesper?"
"No.
"Lysandra?"
"No."
"Druella?"
"No."
"Mirzam then?"
"Yep. Amazing, isn't it?" Orion snickered.
"So, you left our son and daughter-in-law at the mercy of two ghosts?" Walburga admonished.
"They will live, Wally, don't worry about them. Sirius and Mirzam won't hurt them, just chatter them into boredom. It's been decades since they had someone else than each other to talk to," Orion indicated.
"Will you help me feeding our guests?" Walburga queried.
"Yes, my Lady," Orion concurred.
"How do you plan on moving them to that secure location, Mr Black?" Henry MacDonald requested to know once the occupants of Grimmauld Place had finished breakfast.
"I have a multi-use portkey, Henry. The thing is, I can't transport more than four people at a time. I need authorised portkeys to move at least twenty people at once. It would be good, if I had at least ten multi-use portkeys, this way I could transfer about two hundred people at the same time. Which means that I would need five trips back and forth," Orion elaborated.
"What about apparation?" Henry suggested. "I know that due to the full moon being so close, the werewolves can't apparate properly, but their family members can."
"Not safe enough. The best way of transport would be by portkeys or floo and flooing roughly one thousand people would take too long. There is also the Hogwarts Express …" Orion's voice trailed off and he looked like he was thinking hard about something, "... but it wouldn't be the safest option, because then we would need transportation from Hogsmead to the Sanctuary anyway and I rather doubt that about one thousand people travelling to and from Hogsmead would go unnoticed by the villagers."
"So, portkeys it is," Henry conceded. "Fine, I will give you authorisation for ten multi-use portkeys."
"Thank you, Henry,"
"You are welcome. I hope that this deal will remain between the two of us only."
"Granted," Orion promised. "How long will it take you to prepare them?"
"Fifteen minutes. You will need to add the location to it, sir," Henry proposed. "And the rest of the family can start rounding up the first group."
Regulus nodded at that and looked across the table at Gemma, who was feeding Hommy and Remmy.
'Fool,' he admonished himself. 'Stupid idiot. Girls like her don't fall for squib-turned, former Death Eaters. You have nothing to offer her. No job for support. No house to live in. No money. Just a Dark Lord hanging over your head and a dark mark on your right arm. She would be better off with some other man.'
"I will gather the first group," he offered and stood up from the table.
He left the kitchen without turning back, he didn't wanted to see them, especially not Gemma. He needed to get out, busy himself with something. As soon as this whole mess with the werewolves was over, he would lock himself up in the library and start searching for information about Hufflepuff's cup.
He entered the ballroom and met the frightened faces of the werewolves and their families. He cleared his throat and announced, "I need two groups of about twenty people. You will be transferred to a secure location. Someone will meet you at the other end. So, who wants to go first?"
No one answered for a long while and when he thought, he would have to pick the members of the first group himself, Ben Fauxhall, a member of Mirzam's group, raised his hand and proclaimed, "We shall go first."
"Us too," Charlie Chase added.
"So will we and Mary," Melinda Morgan supplied.
"We are going with them," Ted Hammond volunteered.
"Same here," Joe Dawn remarked.
"That would be nineteen," Regulus counted. "Someone single to go along?"
"Me, Guy Fawkes," an old man reported.
"Leave your belongings behind for now. You shall receive them after everybody has safely arrived at the new place." Regulus promised. "It shouldn't take longer than three hours anyway."
They nodded in understanding.
"Now you can go downstairs to the kitchen. Onto the next group, who will be going?" Regulus questioned.
"The Hopkins," Gemma answered from the doorway. "Harry, you will go with them. The Smiths. The Sparrows. The Stowes. The Gibbs. The Larsons. Twenty. Follow the others," she ordered.
"Bill Hearth. The Callahans. The Campbells. Todd Baker. The Parkers. Dawn Brown. Felix Green. The Apples. Ann Maple. Elsie Ransom. Jill Cotton. Another twenty, leave." Regulus called out the names.
"Cadogan West. The Freys. The Kellys. The Falcons. The Hallows," Gemma added. "Next."
"The Kins. The Duncans. The Whites. Dee-Dee Harkish. Holly Hanson. The Goodfellows," Regulus pointed out the next group.
"The Doligans. The Greenleafs. The Leelands. James Fickle. The Sarries. The Wrights," Gemma voiced firmly.
"The Durrans. The Princes. The Fallows."
"The Harrows. The Frickles. The Calders."
"The Lopezs. The Horns. Fanny Adams. The Grudges. The Derands."
"The Greys. The Bullthrons. The Turners. The Sprogs."
Group after group assembled as they were called up and left the room.
"That will be the first bunch. The rest of you gather in ten groups of twenty people. Someone will be back to fetch you in ten minutes," Regulus proclaimed as he and Gemma left the ballroom after the last group.
"Go ahead, Sirius. I will be fine," Mirzam sighed after Sirius asked her for the eight time whether she didn't mind directing the incoming people to the dining hall. "For Merlin's sake, I'm pregnant, not disabled."
"Okay, see you in a few minutes," Sirius smiled and pecked her on the cheek before he left the entrance hall.
He walked through the garden and over to the gates. Lord Black had told him as long as either he or Mirzam was at the gates, their guests would be able to pass them without wasting any time for keying everyone into the wards.
He didn't have to wait longer than a minute before the first group of people appeared. They seemed a bit dazed and surprised. Sirius smiled and directed them to the entrance hall. Another group arrived after two minutes looking equally overwhelmed as the first group. He quickly checked them over to see if they were fine and send them on their way to Mirzam.
He repeated his actions with the next eight groups before he saw his father standing in front of him.
"I'm collecting the portkeys, Sirius. The next group will come about two minutes after me. Gemma and Regulus are going to be among them, they will help out with the others," he promised before he vanished.
Gemma arrived with the first group of the second round and Sirius send her inside to help Mirzam gathering the guests in the dining hall. Regulus arrived with the next group and offered Sirius help with getting the rest of the people into the castle.
Together it took them an hour to have everyone inside and Sirius was about to close the gates after sending Regulus off with the last group, when the women of the family and Minerva McGonagall appeared with another portkey.
"Your father will be sending the men with our guests possessions. He told me he would be the last person to leave at home," his mother informed him. "It was decided that we should stay here for the full moon. Just for safety's sake. He will lock down Grimmauld Place and set the trap there."
He nodded and stayed with them to await the arrival of the children with Remus, Mr Lupin and Narcissa. After they arrived, they went to the castle while Sirius waited for the men to come.
Henry MacDonald and grandfather Pollux were the first ones to appear. Both of them were dragging heavy trunks.
"Multi-compartments," his grandfather explained.
Ignatius, Arcturus, Severus and Ted arrived two minutes later, each of them carrying another trunk in hand. They greeted him and went inside.
He waited for a good ten minutes and was about to apparate to Grimmauld Place when his father appeared in front of him, also holding onto a big trunk.
"This would be our stuff," he approached Sirius. "Lock the gates after us."
"Everything gone well, father?" Sirius wanted to make sure.
"Yes. The house is locked down.. I only hope that your uncle won't decide to visit us before Monday. He would get a rather nasty surprise, if he did," his father snorted as he set the trunk down on the brick road.
Together they sealed the gates and made their way to the castle.
"Now we are in a fort. No one shall get in, no one shall leave. At least for today. Minerva and Severus are going to leave tomorrow after breakfast, heading to Hogwarts," his father indicated. "Where is Mirzam?"
"In the dining hall. The others should be waiting there, too,"
Mirzam thanked all deities she knew that her strongest transfiguration branch was conjuring. She hurriedly duplicated the table that stood opposite to the door of the dining hall, it reminded her very much of the staff table at Hogwarts, especially the two throne-like chairs in the middle of it. Considering that there would be about a thousand guests needing to be seated, she conjured another three long tables and set them vertically to the headtable.
"Now all that's missing, is the enhanced ceiling above and voila, Hogwarts-like for real," she muttered to herself.
She stepped out of the room and threw a last glance back. She grinned and pointed her wand at the ceiling. After all, she married a practical prankster and it wasn't as if anyone besides her, Sirius, Orion or the ghosts had seen this room with a normal ceiling.
She giggled and went to the doors, from where she started sending people to the hall, grinning like a loon whenever she heard gasps of awe coming from inside.
After a short pause in between newcomers she spotted Gemma amongst some of them and before she had a chance to speak, she was enveloped in a tight hug.
"I will need to talk to you after we are done here, alone," Gemma whispered. "Oh Mirzam, …"
"What happened, Gemma?" Mirzam inquired.
"I'll tell you later, honestly," Gemma gave her a reassuring smile and went along with the others towards the hall.
She seemed nervous and for the rest of the time she spent on her task, Mirzam wondered what could send her sister into such a state. After the last group had left the entrance hall, Lady Black appeared next to her.
"The long headtable is reserved for your family, my dear. You and your husband will be sitting in the middle."
"Yes and Sirius will channel Dumbledore," Mirzam snickered.
She quickly greeted the rest of her family and went inside with them. She sat down on one of the throne-like chairs with a heavy sigh, accepting Homam and Remus from her mother-in-law, who had taken the boys from Lucretia.
After a few moments the rest of the men appeared, save Sirius and Orion, who were lagging behind.
"Amazing," she heard Walburga whisper. "Feels like Hogwarts."
"I'll bet the first thing Sirius is going to say when he gets here, will be 'Welcome to another year at Hogwarts'?" Mirzam quipped impishly.
"Ten gallons say I'm in," Walburga replied with a low voice, "and another ten, if Minnie McGonagall takes off her hat out of habit."
Both women snickered at that.
Mirzam looked around the room. People were seated at the tables and checking out their environment uncomfortably. To the left, at the farthest end of the table, Minerva McGonagall, Severus, Gemma and Sadie were sitting. Next to them were the Tonks, the Lupins and Sirius' grandparents. On her right, next to Walburga and Lucretia were Ignatius, Cassiopeia, Kitty Hitcher with her boyfriend, Spica, Almilam, Aludra, Narcissa with Draco on her knees and Regulus on the farthest end.
'Interesting. Gemma and Reggie are sitting a whole table apart and normally they hardly stay farther than two seats away from each other,' Mirzam observed.
She didn't have the chance to ponder on this, because Sirius and Orion walked in and seated themselves on two available chairs.
"It would be good, if you said something, my boy," Mirzam heard the voice of Lord Black coming from behind them.
Sirius cleared his throat and stood up. He looked up at the ceiling, then back at Mirzam, who gave him an innocent smile in return. He responded in kind and turned his attention to the crowd.
"Welcome to another year at Hogwarts," Sirius called out. "Sorry," he grinned sheepishly, "I just couldn't resist."
At that, most of the audience chuckled.
"Pay up, mother," Mirzam demanded.
"Enough of the joking," Sirius sighed. "I want you to know that for the upcoming week ..." he paused and looked down at his father, before he added, "... this castle will be your home. You will spend the full moon here and a few days afterwards. Perhaps during the next couple of days everything will cool down. If it doesn't, we will come up with different, more permanent arrangements. For the full moon there is a heavily warded chamber in the dungeons, it will lock down half an hour before the moon rises and open back up two minutes after it sets. Together with you will be three animagi …"
"Four," Mirzam interrupted.
Sirius looked at her and send her a glare that would have made Severus proud.
"As I said, three animagi will accompany you. They will be there to ensure that you won't fight too much and take care of the eventual wounds as soon as the moon sets," Sirius continued. "You may wander around the castle whenever you like, there is only one exception to the available rooms. It's the library, until one of us," Sirius waved at those sitting at their table, "deems it safe to enter, you cannot. You will be taken to your respective apartments with your families, your possessions are in the entrance hall. Each family has been assigned rooms, your names will be on plaques on the doors. Tomorrow I expect all werewolves to be present downstairs in the dungeon at least fifteen minutes before three o'clock in the afternoon, until then you can do whatever you wish. If you'd like to eat, come down here and food will be waiting for you. Now I trust all of you ate already, but let me welcome you to the Sanctuary of the noble and most ancient house of Black. Let the feast begin," Sirius announced and sat down.
The food appeared in front of them, it looked like the house-elves in the kitchen decided to prove themselves worthy after centuries of not working much at all.
"That was quite the spectacular speech," Mirzam commended Sirius. "But I'm still coming along tomorrow."
"No, you're not," Sirius emphasized. "You are Lady Black, remember?" she knew him all too well, so it was obvious to her that he meant 'You are pregnant, remember?'. "People are going to need your guidance, especially the children and I think, you would be the best person to keep the family in line when I'm gone."
"Sirius," she challenged him.
"I love you," he murmured and pecked her on the cheek. "Do it for me, please."
"Fine, I will be the Lady Protector, if you want me to," she sighed.
After the second breakfast everybody who wasn't sitting at the headtable went to look for their rooms while the Blacks remained.
"Who came up with this enchantment?" Orion asked curiously.
"That would be me," Mirzam grinned. "I just couldn't resist."
"Nice piece of magic. You should leave it, too," he gave her a proud look. "So, what is the general plan for now?"
"I was thinking about visiting the garden, Gemma, will you come along?" Mirzam suggested.
"I will take Severus and Regulus to the greenhouses. Maybe we can find something useful there. The rest of you can explore wherever you like," Sirius offered before he turned to Mirzam and ascertained, "The boys will go with you, won't they?"
"Don't worry," she reassured him.
She picked up the twins and motioned for Gemma to follow. Then she turned to her other sisters, who were busy chatting happily with the rest, so she lead Gemma outside and to the north end of the garden, where she spotted a small bench between the flowers. She put the boys down and watched as they toddled off to the strawberries before she sat down on the bench and patted the spot next to her.
"Are you and Regulus having an argument?" she pried when Gemma sat down with her back to the boys. "Normally you hardly sit two chairs apart and now, suddenly you are sitting at opposite ends of the table."
Gemma sighed heavily and hid her face in her hands, before she admitted, "I'm so stupid."
"Why? And how does it relate to Regulus?"
Gemma lowered her hands and gathered her courage, tilting her head to look at Mirzam, "May I ask how long you and Sirius dated before you got married or rather, decided to have offspring?"
Mirzam giggled, she knew Gemma would ask about it sooner or later. She composed herself and answered truthfully, "We've never dated."
"Never?" Gemma whispered in shock. "But why … how? Surely you had to go out together at some point."
"Never as a couple, Gemma," Mirzam laughed. "And never at Hogwarts. He was too immature at that time. Sure, he was good looking and funny as long as his pranks weren't nasty, but Sirius was what the girls from my dorm called a womanizer. There wasn't a girl who wouldn't fall for his tricks. He could have whoever he wanted … he was quite the charmer and of course, one day in our third year he decided to try it out on me. I was the first girl ever to reject him and that probably was so disturbing that whenever Hogsmead weekend came around, I could always count on him asking me out. I never accepted."
"You never accepted?" Gemma wondered. "Then how on earth did you two get together?"
"Auror training. We both applied for the aurors. Both of us top students during training, so tradition required us to be paired together in the field. I tried to switch him for someone else, but tradition said otherwise, so unless I killed him, he was supposed to stay my partner until one of us got promoted. I'd learned how to deal with him on a daily basis and after a few assignments together, I had to admit to myself that I liked having him around. He was funny, brave, awfully protective, we had a lot of things in common. We just fell into a comfortable truce," she reminisced.
"What about Homam and Remus? You might never have dated, but you had sons."
"They aren't ours, Gemma," she shook her head. "Homam is Sirius' godson and Remus is the child of one of his other friends. Both were orphaned and for their safety I won't tell you their real names. It will be better for everyone involved, if less people know them."
"But you got married."
"So we did. Mostly for the boys, if it had been just us, I think that right now we would be going through the 'let's have a lot of sex' stage of dating," Mirzam snickered.
"You are going through the 'let's have a lot of sex' stage," Gemma pointed out. "I doubt there is a room at Grimmauld Place that you didn't christen."
Mirzam laughed whole-heartedly at that. Indeed, they were going through the 'let's have a lot of sex' stage.
"What about you and Regulus?" she queried after calming down a bit.
"He kissed me," Gemma sighed.
"And?" Mirzam prompted.
"Severus came in, I freaked out and ran off. We haven't talked ever since."
"The question is, whether Regulus' actions were wanted or not. Were they?"
Gemma groaned and surrendered, "They were … very much welcomed. Merlin, for a moment I thought, I'd melt into a puddle on the kitchen floor."
"Are you in love with him?" Mirzam gently laid her hand on Gemma's shoulder.
"I don't know," Gemma whispered. "I love being around him. He is funny and we have so many things in common, but …" she paused for a moment before she continued, "... I can tell you, sometimes he just zones out, like his mind, his heart is elsewhere. One moment he prattles on about something or other and in the next, he stares at the wall. I don't know what I'm supposed to think about that. I don't know what he thinks about me …"
"He didn't have an easy life, Gemma. He isn't whole, not yet, maybe he will never be whole again. He holds his cards close. He kissed you, so he definitely has to have some feelings for you, but he might choose not to pursue them."
"Why?" Gemma looked at her with wide eyes.
"Various reasons. I dare say the first three would be that he is too old, too poor and too dangerous for you," Mirzam mused.
"How is that? He will turn twenty-one during the summer, I'm seventeen, that's hardly too old, we are only four years apart."
"But you still have a year of education to finish," Mirzam pointed out. "He might choose not to pursue you, because he expects you to meet a better and safer guy at Hogwarts and you would favour him instead of Regulus. That's where too poor and too dangerous get involved. Right now Regulus financially depends on the family, he can't work in the wizarding world and his researches keep him from finding a muggle job. He is a former Death Eater, supposedly dead, that's why he never goes out to wizarding places. Most of his old mates are locked up in Azkaban, but some of them bribed their way out and Regulus, as the one who chose to fail the Dark Lord's order, is not overly welcome amongst them. Maybe he wouldn't be so confined and could show himself in the wizarding community, if he was able to defend himself, but due to circumstance he is barely powerful enough to perform second year levelled spells. This might be his reasoning for not pursuing a relationship with you, he would be your liability and hate himself for it."
"Whatever happened to him? Is it permanent?"
"Everybody hopes that it's not, but it might take a long time for him to return to the powerlevel of an adult wizard. As for how it happened … he apparated through very strong anti-apparation wards, it nearly killed him. Though, if you choose to pursue him, he won't be holding out for too long, seems to me that it's becoming a problem for him already."
"Thanks, Mimi. You are the best."
"I'm the oldest," Mirzam snickered. "I just have a way of knowing things."
"May I ask you something?"
"Shoot," Mirzam chuckled.
"Are you pregnant?" Gemma looked straight into her eyes.
"How did you … what gave it away?"
"Huh, so you are," Gemma happily hugged Mirzam. After she pulled away she elaborated, "To tell you the truth, I have no idea what gave it away. I just always could tell when mother was expecting a child, like suddenly the way she was walking had changed. She never was the kind of person to sit and rest for a prolonged amount of time and when she was pregnant, everything about her became more calm, more controlled, more graceful. Besides, it seems to me that Sirius all of the sudden got overly protective of you, it's in the way his eyes follow you around."
"At this rate, I won't make it until the ball,"
"Aren't you going to inform the family about it?" Gemma gasped.
"Not yet," Mirzam rebuffed her. "We were planning to tell them a day or two after the ball."
"So, when is it due and what gender will it be?"
"It's a girl, due around my twenty-third birthday since I'm three weeks along," Mirzam smiled at her.
"Have you decided on a name, yet? A star perhaps?"
"Not a star," Mirzam giggled. "Sirius wanted her to have a name with a good meaning and I wanted something Spanish, so we decided on hope, Esperanza Onyx."
"Why Onyx?" Gemma asked curiously.
Mirzam looked down at her left wrist and smiled to herself, "Just because."
After Sirius dragged a very reluctant Regulus and a slightly amused Severus to the greenhouses, which Lord Black pointed out as a good source for aconite, he settled them on a low brick wall and seated himself on an upturned bucket.
"So, what in the name of Merlin is going on?" Sirius demanded to know. "If you think I can't feel the tension hanging in the air then you are sorely mistaken."
"Our dear, younger brother played tonsil-hockey with your wife's younger sister," Severus came clean, his tone indicating amusement.
"I did not," Regulus huffed.
"You did. It looked like a full blown snog from where I was standing and I doubt that the presence of your sleeping parents would have stopped you from having your wicked way with Gemma on the kitchen floor," Severus snorted.
"Envious, Sev?"
"Bugger off, Reg,"
"So, that's the problem?" Sirius mused patiently. "Regulus, you have to …" he started but was cut off by his brother.
"I know, believe me, I do. I have to remember that Gemma is Mirzam's younger sister and if something bad happens to her, Mirzam will have my balls on a pike," Regulus groaned. "It won't happen again, if that's what you want to hear. I just couldn't stop myself. She deserves someone better than me anyway."
"Merlin, help me," Sirius lamented.
That was the last thing he needed now on top of the upcoming ball, the whole werewolves case and Mirzam's pregnancy though welcome, but still unplanned; Regulus in love with Gemma.
"Do you love her, you idiot?" he inquired.
"Do I love her romantically?" Regulus sighed. "First of all, I don't know what love feels like. I can tell you about lust and the love of a friend, but …"
"Okay, I get the idea. Severus stop smirking," Sirius interrupted him. "Can you talk to her about everything and nothing? Do you want to protect her from everything? Do you want to spend the rest of your life falling asleep next to her and waking up with her at your side?"
"I do. So what?" Regulus shrugged. "I hate to point it out, but in case you didn't realise, I'm the third son and I wish both of you a very long life. I have a Dark Lord hanging over my head. I'm nearly a squib and trust me, if some Death Eater, who managed to get away from Azkaban, found me, I would be dead before I could say 'help'. Besides, Gemma is only seventeen, she has a year at Hogwarts left and trust me, there will be guys far better for her than me. They can give her everything, I have nothing to offer. I'm too poor, too dangerous and too old for her."
"Dunderhead," Severus snorted.
"I agree," Sirius sighed. "Love doesn't work this way, Reggie. If she loves you, she will want to be with you for you, not for money, your status in the wizarding world or your age. So, stop this pitiful argument and ask her how she feels about you."
"She probably considers me as a friend," Regulus complained as he kicked away a pebble .
"Yes, sure," Severus snorted. "If what you have done was what friends do, then Sirius has every right to kill me."
"Whatever for?" Regulus threw him a puzzled look.
"For being Mirzam's friend," Severus enlightened him. "Using your twisted logic, we should spend half of our time together with kissing, besides, I distinctly remember having a talk with you about love and other disasters."
"You had a talk about love?" Sirius interfered.
"Indeed," Regulus chortled. "Shortly before Sev tried to murder father. He got it into his head that he was in love with Mirzam, but I set him straight."
"Don't call me Sev."
"Okay, Sevvie. Speaking about Mirzam, why do you think she took Gemma with her?"
"Probably to tell her that you are going to be an idiot about loving her and to give her some useful tips on how to get you," Sirius chuckled. "So much for not playing matchmakers."
He glanced down at his bracelet and saw amethyst, ruby, diamond and onyx. He smiled at the last gem. Onyx. A child, his little daughter.
"Esperanza," he whispered to himself.
"Espe what?" Severus pried.
"Esperanza," Sirius replied a bit louder. "Hope in Spanish."
"What does the Spanish word for hope have to do with playing matchmakers?" Severus wondered.
"Nothing. It's just …" Sirius paused and looked at his brothers sternly. "... if I hear that either one of you spilled it before the ball, I'll eviscerate you alive, slowly."
"Yes, alright, continue," Severus waved at him, his face showing his curiosity.
"My lips will be sealed," Regulus swore solemnly.
"Mirzam is pregnant," Sirius announced.
"Pregnant?" both men gasped in unison.
"How far along?"
"With whom?"
"Three weeks, with me," Sirius snickered.
"I was asking about the gender of the child, you prat," Severus spluttered.
"A girl," Sirius chuckled. "We decided to name her Esperanza Onyx."
"I can guess the reason for Esperanza, but why Onyx?"
"Just because," Sirius opposed him with a smile. "We don't want to tell the others, yet. Not before the ball anyway, because if our mother or aunts find out, Mirzam is going to be mothered to death. Though I'll bet that Gemma knows by now."
As if to confirm his guess, Mirzam and Gemma walked into the greenhouse. Both were holding a boy in their arms.
"So, Esperanza stands for the hope to get rid of the Dark Lord?" Gemma mused. "Do you plan to have more?"
"Not if I can help it," Mirzam giggled and then added more seriously. "Not before the Dark Lord is well and truly gone. We didn't exactly plan to have more children than the twins, but since it happened anyway, we shall be gloriously happy about begetting a daughter."
"Why Onyx though?" Gemma beseeched her sister. "There are so many beautiful names. Not that Onyx doesn't sound good with Esperanza."
"Because," Mirzam grinned.
"You could be a little bit more specific, you know?"
"If you don't stop asking me for the reason, I will give you my muggle handcuffs," Mirzam threatened.
Gemma blushed furiously before she muttered, "Oh, do shut up."
"So, do you have any other ideas to prove your point?" Mirzam speculated impishly.
"I have one," Gemma supplied. "Don't listen to your advices. So, do you plan to stop working now, Mimi?"
"Not at all. Everything is fine, so hopefully I will be able to work until Christmas."
"You are pregnant," Gemma countered fiercely. "Being a pregnant auror is dangerous."
"I'm a pregnant auror with two little boys and five little sisters to take care of. I was planning to ask Madam Bones for a lighter job in the department, as soon as this whole werewolf mess has cleared off a bit," Mirzam replied.
"A deskjob?"
"Not exactly," Mirzam objected. "I was thinking about something else, but I'm not telling until I had a chance to talk it over with Sirius and Madam Bones. It's just a thought that occurred to me recently."
"Come on, spill the beans,"
"No way," Mirzam shook her head. "So, my dearest sister, where are you planning to work after graduation?"
"I won't tell until you let me in on your plan,"
"Smooth, but since I won't comply until I know it will work out, you are going to be blissfully unaware," Mirzam snickered.
"You are mean and bossy," Gemma chided.
"I'm pregnant. I'm allowed to," Mirzam stuck her tongue out.
"Childish, too," Gemma added with a laugh.
"Congratulations, Mirzam!" Severus called out as they came closer.
"Thanks!" she uttered and then accused Sirius, "So you blabbed it out."
"Just to them and look who's talking," Sirius chuckled.
"The mother of your children," Mirzam retorted. "Sirius, Severus, I'm going to need your help in the library. Give me Remmy," she ordered as she turned to Gemma.
Her sister handed her the child and Mirzam marched out of the greenhouse.
"You could be less obvious," Severus snickered after he and Sirius had caught up with her.
"I could have spelled the doors locked, but I didn't," she laughed and handed Remmy to Sirius. "So, how do you think it'll turn out."
"A snog on the dirty ground," Severus assumed.
"A very uncomfortable discussion about feelings," Sirius added. "Come on, let's raid the library."
Regulus glared after the retreating forms of his brothers and sister-in-law.
"Could they be any more obvious, you think?" he asked Gemma without facing her.
"They could," she giggled. "But it seems to me that Mirzam was always awfully blunt."
"So is Sirius," Regulus surmised. "Severus is only doing it out of spite."
"So," Gemma started, "up for a round of too old, too poor and too dangerous?"
He finally turned around to look at her and groaned, "Mirzam?"
"Mirzam," she nodded.
"You had your mind set already?" he concluded.
"Indeed," she confirmed.
"I'm not good at it," he admitted quietly.
"Neither am I," she smiled at him. "For Merlin's sake, we aren't getting married, Reggie."
"I know," he chuckled. "But give Sirius and Mirzam enough excuses and we are going to be married before little Esper is born."
"All I'm asking for is your companionship," she promised, as she sat down on the spot he occupied not so long ago. "I really like you, you stimulate me … Merlin, I really suck at this …" she rambled nervously.
"You are better than me," Regulus admitted. "You are great, Gem. It's me, who is the real problem … I'm …" he didn't have a chance to finish.
"I know. Mirzam told me about everything," she interrupted him. "I don't mind that you are a former Death Eater and I believe that someday you will regain your magic," she voiced with so much conviction that it made his knees go weak.
"I will be a liability, Gem," he opposed her.
"I'm not a trained auror, but I am the top student in Defence Against Dark Arts. Until you are completely well, I can be powerful for both of us," she implored firmly.
"Auror?"
"Auror," Gemma confirmed. "Don't tell Mirzam, yet. She will do everything in her power to convince me otherwise. Seriously though, I just can't picture myself in a different job," she stressed sheepishly.
"Little secrets," Regulus sighed.
"Are running like a family of hares in the spring, as mother used to say," Gemma giggled. "First Mirzam and Sirius, now me. One day, a lot of people are going to be very surprised."
"Indeed," Regulus admitted. "So, are you up for a tour around the garden? Someone said there was a magnolia."
Gemma only smiled at him. He was so doomed and he loved it.
When the two sisters and three brothers were having their discussion somewhere in the garden, Orion took the family to the drawing-chamber. Fortunately, the ghosts were helping people to acclimate at the castle, so Orion felt a bit more comfortable even though he was surrounded by family members who were going to throttle him as soon as he finished his tale.
When everyone was settled at the round table, again Lord Sirius' idea of good joke, Orion sat down on the throne-like chair with the family tree behind his back.
"So, to whom does this place belong?" his father-in-law inquired with curiousity.
"Lord and Lady Black," Orion provided.
"I was referring to the living, Ori," Pollux pointed out.
"So was I," Orion assured. "This place belongs to the new Lord and Lady Black. It was the last will of our dearest spectres that the lordship should not be passed down the direct line, but through marriage of the male heir to a woman deemed worthy by blood."
"Pure-bloods?" Kitty Hitcher speculated.
"Frankly, no," Orion shook his head. "Originally the Blacks weren't mean to be a prominent pure-blood family, not with a muggle-born wizard and witch to found the clan. Lord Black in his last will established that an heir is deemed worthy of lordship, if he is married to a witch of muggle birth, just like the first Lady Black was. He arranged this to ensure that his family would never come close to the situation of the Callahans. Sadly, up until the 1st of April this year, this circumstance only occurred eleven times, all of them happened centuries before our time," Orion recounted solemnly.
"Phineas?" Cassiopeia inquired.
"Married a half-blood. So did his son. Benjamin married a muggle. Sirius is the only heir of the lordship because of his marriage to Mirzam," Orion explained and then paused. "Probably, assuming that I'm not mistaken in my judgement, Regulus will become the second Lord Black, as soon as he stops watching Gemma from afar and makes his move. If Severus hadn't messed up his relationship with Lily Evans, he would be a Lord, too. But for now, the only Lord and Lady in the family are Sirius and Mirzam, not that they were willing to take over. I had to trick them into acceptance."
"Just how on earth did you find this place?" Lucretia wondered.
"Accident," Orion admitted. "I was wandering around during the Christmas holidays in my sixth year …"
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but I distinctly remember that you spent the Christmas holidays of your sixth year at Hogwarts," his father interjected.
"So I did," Orion chuckled. "The Sanctuary is a six hour walk to the north away from Hogwarts."
"What?" Minerva yelped. "It's impossible. It's huge and over this distance it could be seen from Hogwarts, but it certainly is not," she objected.
"And here I was thinking that I was surrounded by wizards and witches," Orion prevailed. "It's magic. You can't see the Sanctuary at all unless you have been inside at least once."
"So, that's where you kept disappearing to for the rest of your education at Hogwarts," Ignatius muttered.
"Indeed," Orion admitted. "Sirius and Mirzam, our ancestors, were always very helpful guides and the library here would turn every single pure-blood family in Europe green with envy. We owe that to Severus Black, who sacrificed his life to keep the libraries from Liar safe from the Callahans, and a few other passersby like me, who supplied the library with the greatest works of their time. Last of which was Sirius Homam Black, the one who died in the Great Fire of London while destroying the Dark Lord Dunbarrow," he explained.
There was more to Sirius' story than he wanted to admit in the presence of people who weren't in the Horcrux Slayers Club, but this particular information could wait for a more appropriate time.
"Why didn't you move here?" his mother wanted to know. "Grimmauld Place is cramped compared to this."
"I wasn't worthy," Orion shook his head. "Besides, if the family had started living here, this place would have lost its purpose, mother. It's the Sanctuary, safe haven, shield for the innocent, last bastion of light. If this place ever fails to serve its purpose, it would be the end of the light. And don't look at me like that, I'm dead serious," he claimed fiercely.
"You weren't worthy?" his mother stared at him unbelievingly.
"I married a pure-blood," Orion sighed. "Even more, a second cousin of mine. I still love you, Wally, but I'm stating the facts. For that, I was deemed unworthy of the title and to tell you the truth, I didn't care. Sure, the lordship grants a lot of power and access to a few locked rooms in the castle nobody else can enter, for example the Place, the mausoleum of Lord and Lady Black."
"What kind of power are we talking about?" Henry MacDonald asked tentatively.
"Political, my boy," Orion answered. "To my knowledge there are loads of money, property, and anything else you can think of. One could practically recreate the wizarding community, if he wanted to, but nobody ever did. For example, the land the Ministry of Magic stands on, belongs to Lord Black, so does the St Mungo's hospital. Lots of homes to pure-blood families have been built on grounds, which by right belong to Lord Black, even Hogwarts."
"Hogwarts?" Minerva grunted.
"Hogwarts is standing on land that Orion Black sold to Godric Gryffindor, one of the stipulations was, if ever a student comes within three hours distance to the Sanctuary, the contract will become void and the land including the castle shall be returned to Lord Black. That contract has been broken repeatedly about seven hundred times. The lordship of Black is an enormous responsibility and fortunately it depends on the marriage to a muggle-born witch, otherwise so much power in the hands of a pure-blood bigot …" Orion shuddered at this thought. "... it would be very scary, indeed. I don't even want to think about the results of such an occurrence."
"If you wanted to scare us witless, you succeeded," Walburga reproached him.
"I wanted you to understand the importance of the lordship. On a lighter note, you might be interested in this family tree behind me," he waved his hand towards it. "It can't be tampered with contrary to the one at Grimmauld Place."
"That's quite the comforting thought," Pollux approved.
"I can top that, we've never produced a Dark Lord," Orion gave him a reassuring smile. "Only a few Dark Lord slayers and lots of martyrs for the wizarding world."
After leaving Regulus and Gemma alone in the greenhouse, Severus followed Mirzam and Sirius to the library. Upon entering the room he felt his jaw drop. Of course he'd seen the library at Grimmauld Place and was familiar with most of the books there, besides the Prince family had a rather extensive library, too, but this was beyond the capacity of absorption for any human's mind. It was enormous, gigantic, mind-numbing, stupyfying, stunningly wonderful, admirable, fantastic, glorious and lots of other adjectives he certainly could have given it under normal circumstances, but faced with such beauty he couldn't recall any of them.
"It's …" he started, but lacked the right words for it.
"A jewel," Mirzam supplied.
The room was approximately twice the size of the dining hall, which was slightly bigger than the Great Hall at Hogwarts. Hogwarts library compared to this one seemed like a broom closet. It was about thirty feet high, filled by tall bookshelves from floor to ceiling on every wall of the room, save six enormous, ornamented windows and the door they just walked through. There were bookshelves in the middle of the room also, about twenty-four of them, with quite a large reading area consisting of four long mahogany tables, a bunch of chairs and a few ottomans.
"I almost had to stun Mimi to drag her out of here," Sirius chuckled. "It's gigantic."
Severus wandered away from them to one of the shelves in the middle of the room and pulled out the first book that looked decent enough. He flipped the cover open and read the title, 'Most Potent Potions of Wizarding Kind' by Severus O. Black. He sat down and started leafing through the book lazily. It was an amazing, very detailed potionsbook. He came to a halt when he spotted a reference to aconite and as if it was waiting to come to his aid, the next book landed in his lap.
He opened it and read the title, 'Aconite. Salvation for the children of Lycaon or a fluke?', again by Severus O. Black. He quickly flipped a few pages and settled on the first chapter. He put it aside for his research concerning alterations of the wolfsbane potion and returned 'Most Potent Potions of Wizarding Kind' to the shelf.
Then he pulled out another random book and snorted at the title on the cover 'Severus O. Black. Diary of 997. Keep your filthy hands away from my diary, Gryffindor! Sincerely S'. Underneath the title was a note, 'You wish, Black. G.', under this came another one, 'If you wish to have heirs, Gryffindor, you will remove your hands from my property. SOB.', on the bottom of the cover was a last note, 'You. Me. Our wands. Sally. Clearing in the forest. Eve of Christ's birth. You win and I might. Love, GAG.'
"I sincerely hope that Sally doesn't stand for Salazar," Severus murmured.
"It does," Mirzam informed him. "I saw a letter from Sally S. to Sevvie B. somewhere, when I was looking through the contents of this shelf. They were discussing parseltongue."
"Who was that Severus Black?" Severus turned around to face the pair.
Mirzam was sitting at one of the tables and Sirius had wandered off to the shelves on the other side of the room.
"I found clues that he must have helped the founders leading the school for some time, he taught curse breaking," Sirius said pensively.
"He died in the slaughter of the Blacks by the hands of the Callahans, he was protecting the works that were stored in Lair, right there in the shelf you are standing by," Mirzam added. "Had he apparated with the last load of books he sent here, he would have lived, so the ghosts told me. But he chose to protect his siblings instead of saving his own life."
"That's why Slytherin came to assist," Severus realised, recalling the story about the Black's slaughter. "Because he knew him."
"Indeed." Mirzam looked down at the book she was holding and declared, "oh, bugger."
"What?" Severus and Sirius questioned in unison, rushing to her side.
She pointed at the passage the book was opened to.
"Bugger," Sirius stated.
"Bugger, indeed," Severus agreed with him.
Awaiting criticism - like always. I'm replying as long as you leave me your email or you log in while reviewing. Bring my ego down ;)
So Reggie channels Remus and Gemma channels Dora, I had a lot of fun with writing this part. Don't worry things between them are going to be rather slow, she still has to graduate from Hogwarts before something big will happen.
So what Mimi, Sior and Setor (couldn't resist ;-) ) discovered in the library? I will leave you hanging on this one, though I will give you one hint, mind what Orion says or thinks in this chapter, it's very important. Actually the past is very important in this story, everything about history of the family, one way or the other, has a meaning.
Lordship is going to be important some day, not now, right now lordship only makes Sirius and Mirzam protectors of the innocent (read: werewolves).