Ch27: Meet the family

With all the hustle and bustle concerning Sirius, Dianna and Lilly thought it was just right to introduce the family to their old-new family.

They first told Narcissa about their meeting with Bob and about his family tree. Narcissa was touched by the coincidence. "Isn't it a kind of poetical justice that one of the Armstorngs will be a wizard?" she mused. "Are you sure about the details?"

Dianna showed her the family-tree. Bob's great-uncle was the one whose family had been wiped, yet looking closely at the parchment, she could see a line starting from his son and going out of the page. "This is where your name should appear," she told Dianna.

Harry had a more emotional response. "Why have I never checked my whole family tree?" he wondered. He then looked for the Armstrong's phone number and invited them to the Christmas dinner, apologizing for being so late. He didn't speak about the family ties, only about Bob being his daughters' friend.

Christmas dinner was held at Potter Manor, as usual. The Weasleys didn't come this time, preferring to spend the time with their children and grandchildren, but it was still a full hall.

Lilly and Dianna introduced Bob and his parents to Harry and his wives. Bob didn't yet know of his ties with Dianna and she didn't want to mention them before dinner.

Sirius was looking at everything as if he was in a trance. He could still remember that place as it had been during his Hogwarts days, and now it seemed even grander. He was paying close attention to all the ladies, noticing especially those who were unattached.

He frowned a bit when he saw Draco Malfoy in the audience, but he noticed the Malfoys being welcomed warmly by Harry, which relaxed him a bit. Scorpius was also welcomed by the younger Potters, yet there was a mysterious lady with Draco and his wife.

"Who's that lady?" he asked Harry, directing his gaze towards the tall elegant blonde.

"Oh, that's Daphne Greengrass, Astoria's older sister. She used to be in my year at school."

"She is beautiful!" Sirius commented, quite admiringly.

"She was also known at school as 'the ice queen', so don't raise your hopes too high," Harry warned him.

Sirius took that as a challenge. While his seat was reserved with the Potter-Black family, he conspired with the elves to have another empty seat ready near Daphne.

This dinner was much less formal than the previous. Narcissa had already been accepted, mostly, as Harry's wife by both ex-Slytherins and ex-Gryffindors. Both sides found no reason for alarm anymore, and Molly Weasley wasn't present. People moved around between servings and the atmosphere was festive and jovial.

Harry spent some time with Mr. Armstrong, trying to trace their common ancestor. The latter felt quite overwhelmed by the attention given to him by the esteemed Lord Potter.

Sirius set himself on the chair besides Daphne as soon as politeness allowed. Daphne was actually bored. She had lost contact with all her school mates, although most hadn't interested her very much to start with, and Sirius, although uninvited, seemed to provide a bit of entertainment. She didn't even know who he was and didn't really care. She only enjoyed his charming compliments, his free-flowing chat and his jubilant nature. It was only when Harry called Sirius to introduce him to somebody, that she found the curiosity to ask her sister who he was.

"Sirius? He's Harry godfather. He had spent many years in Azkaban due to false accusations, broke out of there during your third year at Hogwarts and then fell through The Veil during the battle at the DOM, only to return about a week ago."

Daphne's curiosity was piqued now. When Sirius returned, she started paying some attention to him and asked a few questions as well. She didn't really expect anything from this man who was a decade older than her, at least, but she found his company quite refreshing.

As soon as Bob finished his desert, Dianna and Lillian took him to another room. Dianna put a folded parchment in front of him.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Just look at it," Dianna told him.

He unfolded it and was surprised to see another family tree. He could see Dianna's name at the bottom, with "Narcissa Black-Malfoy" as her mother. He then moved his eyes to her father and gasped of surprise. The name "Nathan Armstrong" was clearly written there. He followed a bit higher and then aside, finding "Robert Armstrong" written near the corner. Following the lines up again he found the familiar "Evans".

Bob seemed to be frozen. His eyes were scanning the parchment continuously up and down, yet nothing else seemed to move.

"You are much closer cousin with me than with Lilly," Dianna finally told him, pulling him out of his trance.

"I... I don't know what to say. I thought I was lucky to have a bit of magic in me. Now I discover I'm related to the two most powerful witches alive. All I can say is... Wow!"

They talked a bit more, trying to understand what this newly found relation meant for them, before joining the adults.

It was becoming late. Some of the younger children had already fallen asleep in their chairs or on their parents' laps and the guests were starting to leave. The Malfoys had already left, yet Daphne was laughing at a joke Sirius had just told her. She didn't remember ever enjoying herself so much. She wasn't really surprised when Sirius invited her to continue the evening in his room. For a change, she accepted the invitation.

Harry was talking again with Bob's parents, who seemed much more relaxed now. The three children approached them.

"Dad, we need to talk with you and Mom and with Bob's parents as well," Dianna told Harry.

"Is there a problem?" he asked, beginning to worry.

"No, it's just something that I believe you will all find important."

"Can't you tell me now?"

Dianna looked around. There were still people everywhere; drinking, chatting and enjoying themselves. "We need some privacy for this," she told Harry.

A few minutes later they were all assembled in the living room. Dianna presented her parchment again, making the important parts illuminated with just a flick of her wrist. It only surprised Bob's parents. Narcissa's eyes became teary as she saw her daughter's family ties rebuilt. She hugged Dianna, taking support from her as much as giving, while Harry hugged her from the other side, hugging Lilly with his other hand.

"I believe I should check my ancestry, at last. If I missed you then I may have missed some other living relatives as well," Harry noted.

When they parted, it was only after Harry had invited the Armstrong to join them at the New-Year's ball and promised to get to know them better.

Harry spent most of the time between Christmas and New-year researching his family ties. He could find nothing in the official family tree, as the Potters seemed to only have a single boy each generation, preceded by a single girl only once, nine generations ago – the one who married a Black.

He needed the help of Gringotts ancestry test to check his Evans side of the family. This proved to be almost as frustrating. Aside from his relative who married an Armstrong, there didn't seem to be any girls in the family before his aunt and his mother arrived, and they also had only a single child each generation.

Yet it wasn't a fruitless search. The unofficial family-tree procured by Gringotts had shown him two illegitimate potter offsprings. One was a muggle girl, born from a muggle fan girl of the then famous Stephan Potter, a well known theater actor (aside from being a prominent wizard) a few generations earlier. Unfortunately, she turned nun and had no children.

The other was more surprising, though.

"Are you sure about this?" he asked the goblins.

"There has never been an error with our tests for as far back as we have records. This kind of test has been crucial for many, as some fathers don't like to take responsibility for illegitimate children."

It was a very bewildered Harry that left Gringotts.

"So, what have you found?" Hermione asked him.

"Do you remember the two chasers, those two girls who were in the team since my first year?"

"Yes, Katie and Alicia. What about them?"

"According to the tests, Katie is my half-sister. Her mother had probably spent some time with my Dad just before he fell in love with my mother..."

Hermione said nothing. She just hugged him comfortingly.

"I don't think he even knew about her, or he would have at least mentioned her in his will," Harry added.

"I've seen her mother once," Hermione added. "She needed some minor treatment and then stayed to talk a bit. She did mention that you looked a lot like your father, who was three years younger than her. She didn't say anything else, though."

"What should I do now?" he asked. "I can't just pop at her house and tell her "Hi, sis!"

She smiled. "Invite her here, along with some others who were in the team at that time; ask her about her parents, maybe. I don't think her mother ever married, actually. She was introduced as Miss Bell. I thought I was going to see Katie until she came in."

Harry asked Sirius about the girls his father dated before Lilly.

"Oh, there were many, really. Too many to remember them all, although some lasted a bit longer than others. He even attracted older girls. There were three or four during our fifth-year with whom he was quite intimate. One was Emmanuelle Smithson, a Hufflepuff. Very curvy, blonde and quite daring. Then there was that Ravenclaw whose name I can't recall. She was a brunette, very smart and very cunning. I think she wanted to trap James into marriage, but he didn't fall for her. There was also Miranda Bell. She was gorgeous! All male students lusted for her, but only James managed to get into her knickers, just before she finished Hogwarts. I heard nothing about her ever since."

"She has a daughter," Harry told him. "Katie is two years my senior. She was a magnificent chaser during our school years and she still plays in a semi-professional team, as far as I know."

Sirius paled. "You don't think..."

"She's my half-sister, according to the goblins, but I've only found out today, and she probably doesn't know."

"Then you should invite her here. If she's anything like her mother, then she must be a beauty!" Sirius exclaimed.

"I'll invite the whole Quidditch team to our New-year's Ball," Harry decided, "and then we may see what happens."

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