A?N: Thank you so much for all the reviews. I am so glad that so many of you are enjoying the story and letting me know. If you have any questions please let me know and I will try to respond through PM as soon as I can.
Also, thank you BunyipBudgie for letting me know about my error. You are much appreciated.
Happy Reading
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
{Parseltongue}
Time seemed to fly by for Fenrir as he cared for the child of his best friend. Corvus seemed to remain unfazed at the changes in his life, which worried the portraits and his caregiver who felt that the boy should have been having some trouble dealing with the major changes he had been through.
When Fenrir walked into the nursery on their second day in their new home, he found Corvus sitting in his cot quietly playing with a small plushy that had not been in the cot when he had made his way into his own room the night before. Fenrir stopped in the doorway and watched as the child played quietly until he noticed Fenrir standing in the doorway.
"Fen. Fen. Up!" Corvus sat the plushy aside and pulled himself up by the bars on his cot and then held his hands up at Fenrir. Fenrir was a bit taken aback at how delighted the child seemed to be at seeing someone that he had not known for long.
When he entered the study he placed the boy back into the miniature chair that transfigured the day before and applied a sticking charm to the now squirming baby. Calling for Kreacher, he quickly had the boy eating his breakfast while he contemplated how calm the boy was.
While watching the baby eat his bite sized food, Fenrir realized that the boy was in a day outfit instead of the pajamas he had been changed into the night before. He called to Kreacher and asked if he had changed the boy and found out that the elf had changed the boy's nappy and clothes when he woke up earlier. There was a charm on the cot that would notify the elf when the boy needed attending. Kreacher assured the werewolf that he would take care of all dirty nappies, much to Fenrir's relief.
After he had finished his breakfast and Fenrir had finished a cup of tea, he once again picked the boy up to carry him through the house. He took the boy to the hall of portraits where the paintings were life sized instead of the smaller frames that were located throughout the house. Conjuring an arm chair, he sat with the boy in his lap in front of the painting of Regulus. Morrigan quickly appeared in the frame and smiled down at her son.
"Corvus…Corvus…look at me Corvus." Fenrir used his fingers to turn the toddlers face towards him as he said his name. He refused to call the boy by the name of a dead child and felt that one of the first things he would need to do was get the boy to know his own name. "Good boy Corvus. Okay. Corvus, I want you to meet your mummy and daddy."
Fenrir pointed to the two smiling figures in the painting while watching the boy closely. He was expecting the boy to start looking for the Potters when he said mummy and daddy but was surprised with the boy's reaction. Corvus looked from Fenrir to the figures in the painting with a curious expression while chewing on one of his fingers. Fenrir claimed his attention again as he was staring and smiling around his fingers at the painting of the couple that was cooing at the boy from their frame.
"Corvus, look at me. Good boy." Fenrir then placed his hand on his chest. "Fenrir." Moving his hand to the boy's chest he tried to make the boy understand. "Corvus." He continued in this manner until the boy started to repeat his name while patting him on the chest. Fenrir then stood and held the boy on his hip as he repeated the process with the figures in the painting. "Mummy…Daddy…" After a few minutes, Corvus pointed to Morrigan and Regulus and said clearly "mummy…da."
Corvus continued to point between the four of them while saying their names in turn while Fenrir just looked at the boy in surprise.
"Shouldn't that have been harder? Why is he not crying for the Potter's?" None of the portraits in the room could answer his question, and they all were thinking that it was a bit strange that the boy seemed to accept his new home and name so quickly. Walburga thought that he was just repeating words but was not actually making the connection between the names and the people and told the werewolf her theory.
"Corvus…" Fenrir paused as the boy immediately turned his head to look at him. "Um, good boy…Corvus…where's mummy?"
Corvus looked at Fenrir for a moment before turning back to the portrait to point. "Look Fen. Mummy!"
Fenrir looked at the boy for a moment before turning his head to look over at the portrait of Walburga with his brows raised in question. Walburga was just blinking at them from her frame where she had been watching.
"I don't know Fenrir. He may still have a fit when he doesn't see them for a while, but he has been with you for two nights now. I would have thought he would have been upset by now to be around someone he did not know."
The portraits joined Fenrir in staring at the boy that was now happily chewing on his fingers while watching them talk. Fenrir sighed and placed the boy on the floor while sitting back down in his conjured armchair.
"Kreacher." When Kreacher popped into the room Fenrir was quick to grab the boy that had tried to shoot over to the elf. "Kreacher, I want you to bring some toys and child…things…to this room. I will probably have the boy in here a lot so that he can be around as many portraits as possible, so set it up so that it will be child-friendly."
Kreacher nodded and popped away to do as he had been told. Soon Kreacher was back in the room and placing rugs and small furniture around the room so that the boy could be comfortable. Shelves soon appeared with toys, and children's books. The portraits watched from their frames as the Portrait Hall was turned into a child's play-learning room.
"Well, as strange as this idea is, it will probably work out for the best." Orion did not look impressed at the colorful objects that were now decorating the room that was supposed to show the Black family in the best light. "At least we will all be able to watch the boy and help him learn instead of taking turns visiting the nursery. The child-safety wards prevent anyone from being in the frames in there for too long anyway." The other portraits nodded that they agreed and watched as the boy placed on the floor after Kreacher had disappeared.
Corvus stood with one hand gripping Fenrir's pant leg as he looked around the newly transformed room. He looked up at his caregiver with his head cocked to the side.
"Well go on boy, go play." Fenrir sighed at the boy.
Corvus smiled at the word 'play' and again took off like a bullet towards the shelves. He pulled down a large book with animals on the cover and plonked down on the rug so that he could open the book. He was quickly lost in the large moving pictures of magical animals. The book would say the names of the animals and list small bits of information on where they could be found and what they could do magically when the pictures were touched.
Fenrir watched for a few minutes before leaving the room and warding the door so that it could only be opened by an adult. He made his way to the study where he pulled out the folders that had come from the bank and began to sort through the large amounts of paperwork that came with taking care of the heir of two prominent households.
In the Portrait Hall turned playroom, Alaric Loxias, Corvus's great-grandfather was soon sitting on the floor of his painting so that he was as close to the boy as possible.
"What do you have there, Corvus?" Corvus looked up at the man in the painting before turning his book so that he could see the picture. "Ah, that is a mighty fine looking Flitterby. Did you know that a Flitterby could be used in potions? No? Well, once such potion can turn your hair a different color. Do you know where your hair is?" Corvus reached up one of his hands and pulled at his black locks while still looking at the man in the painting. "Very good, Corvus."
The days with in the Black Family Manor continued in this manner, with Corvus eating at his small table in the study, and then spending hours in the Portrait Hall while the different members of his family would talk to him about the toy or book he was looking at and asking him questions to see what he already knew. The portraits and Fenrir were all proud that the boy was bright and already knew some of his colors and could point out his hair, eyes and nose. Their pride grew as they realized that the boy would soak up information like a sponge.
They realized just how bright the boy was after their third day in the house when Fenrir had walked back into the hall to find all the figures in the paintings sitting on the floor leaning up against their canvases so that they were at the boy's level. Walburga explained to Fenrir that the boy had played for a while and listened to Morrigan for a while before realizing that Fenrir had left the room. The paintings had distracted the boy by playing a game to introduce themselves to the boy and teach the boy colors at the same time as they reaffirmed that the boy would recognize his own name; they were still doubting that the boy actually knew his name was Corvus.
They would each call the boy over to their portrait and introduce themselves while telling the boy what color they were wearing. Fenrir had walked in just as Phineas, who had stopped by his frame when Orion had called him, was introducing himself to the wide-eyed boy.
"Hello Corvus, I am Grandfather Phineas, and I am wearing Black." He managed to sound stern and dignified even as he sat on the floor of his painting, explaining to a toddler the color he was wearing.
Corvus had shot towards Fenrir when he had finally noticed that he was back in the room and attached himself to the tall man's leg as he began to babble excitedly. Fenrir just looked down at the boy and tried to look like he understood what the boy was trying to say. Eventually, Corvus pulled on Fenrir's hand and walked around the Hall while poking the portraits with his small fingers. While he was butchering their names, one thing was clear to both Fenrir and the portraits. Corvus was repeating all of their names and naming the colors he was pointing to in the painting.
"Bloody Hell, he's not even two years old." Regulus said incredibly from his frame across the room.
The room fell into silence as they all heard a smaller voice reply. "'oddy bell, da."
Fenrir growled as he scooped up the giggling baby. "That's just perfect."
Regulus just blushed at the looks he was getting from his friend and the other portraits. "Um…opps?"
"Alright, we have a little sponge in the house, so everyone will just have to mind what they say to the boy." Walburga brushed out the wrinkles that had appeared in her dress as she sat on the floor within her painting. The men all nodded their agreement when the women glared at them from their own paintings.
They soon learned that was easier said than done when the boy would walk up to one of the paintings and proudly say a new word that he had learned from somewhere. When Corvus had showed off his new word of 'Uck to his Grandma Walburga, she just blinked at him while hoping desperately that he was trying to say 'Duck,' never mind that he had been able to say that word clearly for a while now.
The household finally found out how the boy was learning words that they had been so careful not to say in his presence when two the two portraits of Orion and Cadeyrn were having a heated discussion in an unused part of the Manor about Dumbledore and his maneuvering within the Wizengamot when they noticed two stormy eyes staring at them from the floor.
Both portraits looked down at their grandson with expressions of bafflement. "Corvus? How in Merlin's name did you get here?" Orion was the first that was able to voice the question. They had entered a frame in an unused and dusty part of the house thinking that they would have no chance of being heard by the little sponge since he was supposed to be safely in his cot sleeping. It was after ten 'o clock and the boy had been put to bed hours ago.
"Grandpa, story." Corvus plonked himself down and wiggled around to get comfortable and looked up at the painting with expectant eyes from his place on the floor.
Cadeyrn moved out of the frame to collect Fenrir with a smile as Orion began to tell a story to the young heir.
"Once upon a time, there was a small boy who liked to climb out of his cot and walk through child safety wards so that he could wonder into places that he should not go. One night the boy wondered through his house and got lost, and the boy did not know what to do. So the smart boy walked over to an empty portrait frame and started to knock." Orion knocked on his own frame to show the boy what he meant. Now that he knew that the boy was wondering around the manor, he wanted the boy to be able to let someone know where he was if he was lost. Kreacher would not be able to be pulled into this section of the house as it had been closed off to all but the portraits for a long time. Fenrir will have to update the wards so that the whole house is in use if the boy can get through the wards. "When the boy knocked on the frame, someone came to find out who was making all that noise. When they saw the young boy, they summoned the boy's guardian and made sure that the boy was all safe and ready to be put back into bed where he was supposed to be."
As he spoke the last little bit of his quickly made up story, the door opened to show a rumpled Fenrir. Fenrir sighed as he picked up the boy from the floor and nodded to the two gentlemen that were in the frame before disappearing back down the dark hallway.
Corvus hung limply in the arms of Fenrir as he was carried back towards his room. The portraits were all awake now and talking about the boy as they passed by. Once they entered the nursery, Fenrir placed the boy back into his cot and just stared down at the innocent face of his best friend's child.
"If I leave you here, you are just going to escape again, aren't you?" Fenrir watched as the stormy eyes seemed to brighten at his question. Looking at the door that led to the hallway, he pondered his options. He knew that the room was heavily warded with child-safety wards and they were all still intact, and he did not know any wards that would be guaranteed to keep the boy in the room if he was just bypassing the existing wards as though they did not exist. "Alright brat, come on."
He reached back into the cot and picked up a delighted Corvus before disappearing through the connecting door to his own room. He crawled back between his sheets without losing his grip on the boy. Making sure that he had tucked the boy in as securely as he could, he tightened his arms around the brat and drifted back to sleep with one thought on his mind. The Dark Lord better hurry up and get here before I lose the brat.
After finding out that Corvus was wondering around the manor when they thought he had been sleeping or safe in his room, the portraits took to wondering the frames throughout the manor at all hours. No longer would they all sleep at the same time. A large frame was added to the nursery to replace the smaller frame so that they could also check to make sure that he was still in his room periodically during the night, but they were never able to stay in the nursery for very long as the wards on the room interfered with the magic in the frame. These measures, however, did not stop the boy from being able to wonder around while the portraits and werewolf did not even realize he had wondered off again. Most nights Fenrir would give up and tuck him into his bed so that he could keep ahold of the boy.
If paintings could look frazzled, they would have from continually wondering the many frames in the large manor when the boy would start exploring. Fenrir was exhausted, as was Kreacher, who would be continually pulled by the young heir to his location if there were no frames within his reach for him to knock on.
The portraits had debated about the boy's ability to get through the child-safety wards. They were all pretty much in agreement that it was not accidental magic as the boy seemed to wonder through the wards whenever he wanted, just like he would summon Kreacher whenever he wanted. They were still waiting to see if he would summon something like he had done the first night with the plushy.
Kreacher popped into the study on day with Corvus holding onto the tired elf like a limpet and chewing on his floppy ears. Corvus had found a small unused storage room and had pulled the elf to him when he realized that he did not know where he was.
"Kreacher is being sorry Lord Grey, but Kreacher is being thinking that we is being needing more elves to bes cleaning and cooking and helping to watch the Little Master."
Fenrir looked at the elf as he stood still while Corvus chewed on his ears to make his gums feel better. The boy did not whine much, but he chewed on everything he could put into his mouth.
"Alright Kreacher, find another elf that will be loyal to the House of Black. If you can find two that you think will be good elves, bring them to me and I will bind them to the Houses of Black and Loxias. You will be in charge of them. One of them can become the personal elf of the Dark Lord when he arrives." Kreacher nodded as Fenrir stood and made his way over to where he was standing. The old elf gave a relieved sigh as Fenrir detached the boy from him and carried him over to his little table for lunch.
Corvus gave a little whine as the sticking charm was applied to his bottom; it was one of the few things that the boy would express his displeasure at. Fenrir just looked at the pouting boy tiredly while he wondered how much longer the Dark Lord was going to take. The boy began to eat as soon as his food was on the table and Fenrir took a moment to lean his head against the back of the couch.
He had finally gotten the finances settled for both houses that Corvus was heir to. Fenrir was quite proud to say that the boy would be one of the wealthiest wizards in the world by the time he reached his majority. Had Dumbledore been able to get his hands on the boy's vaults there was no doubt that the boy would have been left with nothing to his name. As it was, Dumbledore had already emptied the Potter Trust Vault of its yearly 10,000 Galleons and then had the temerity to ask the Goblins to either refill the vault early or allow him access to the Potter Vault so that he could gather some things for Harry Potter's care.
The Goblins had denied Dumbledore access to the Potter Family Vault and told him that there was no way to refill the Potter Trust Vault earlier. Dumbledore had then told the Goblins that he really needed to pick up some family artifacts for the boy, to help him adapt to no longer being around his family, and the Goblins took great delight in telling the Headmaster that he would not be able to access the Potter Family Vault for any reason what so ever and that the Potter boy would not be able to access the Potter Family Vault until he reached his majority. Dumbledore had finally left the bank in a huff at not getting what he wanted from the bank.
Dragontooth had included a detailed account of the interaction with the Headmaster when he had sent the inventory list for the artifacts in Black and Loxias Vaults. Dragontooth had managed to inventory the Loxias Vaults in such a way that they could see what exactly had come from the Potter Vaults. Fenrir would soon be making a trip to the bank to pick up some of the rarer books that had been in the Potter Library so that they could be added to the manor library. Fenrir thought about collecting the invisibility cloak, but did not want to take the chance that the boy would come across it somehow and decide to play 'find me' with it.
Checking to make sure that the boy was still busy eating, Fenrir picked up his copy of the Daily Profit. He had been amazed at the things that had made the news lately. The Portraits had all laughed when he had shared the article about Sirius Black being arrested and sent to Azkaban for murdering thirteen muggles, Peter Pettigrew, and betraying the Potters to the Dark Lord. They spent more than a few hours talking about the irony that the boy was the first Black to end up in Prison in over three Centuries, and he was the one that left the family because they were 'no good.'
It was Regulus that pointed out that his brother had not received a trial and that Sirius was supposed to be the Godfather of the Potter boy. If he had been free, he would have taken the boy from the muggles and raised Corvus as Harry Potter. Dumbledore was in a position to make sure that his follower received a trial, but it was obvious that Dumbledore just wanted Sirius out of the picture for the moment.
It was during this conversation that Remus Lupin was brought up. Regulus knew that Fenrir had been the one to turn Remus when he was young and was one of the few that knew the story in full. Regulus asked if there was any way that Remus could be maneuvered away from Dumbledore's influence because of everything that had happened recently.
Fenrir was simply unwilling to risk putting Corvus around the other werewolf. "I just don't know Reg. Remus should have been able to smell the same thing that I did if he was ever close to the boy. I don't want to risk that he knew what was going on and was alright with it. It is very possible that the Wolfsbane is able to dull his senses or that it can influence him in some way. I can't let him near the brat until I know without a doubt that he would be on our side." Regulus had nodded his agreement of Fenrir's choice.
Another news article had detailed an attack on the Longbottom family by Bellatrix Lastrange and her husband Rodolphus, his brother Rabastan, and Bartemius Crouch Jr. Fenrir had winced when he had learned that they had been taken to prison after a sham of a trial.
According to wizarding law, Bellatrix had the right to demand satisfaction from Frank and Alice Longbottom. They had cursed her while she had been caught in the cross fire of the Death Eaters and the Order of the Phoenix members. She had not been a Death Eater at the time and had just been unlucky enough to have been to Diagon Alley to buy baby furniture when the fighting had started. It had been Frank that had cast the curse that had ended her pregnancy and it was his wife that had cursed her with an infertility charm so that she would 'not be able to create more dark wizards.' They were still not able to find the counter charm for the curse or find out if there even was one.
The paper had reported that she had used the Crucio curse on the Longbottoms until they were insane, but Fenrir knew that she had used a curse of her own creation that would lock the Longbottoms in their minds where they would relive their worst memories over and over as though they were surrounded by Dementors. Fenrir also knew that the paper was wrong when it said that she was after the Longbottom boy because he was a threat to the Dark Lord. The Dark Lord had never thought of the Longbottom boy as a threat since he was not born on the same day as the Potter boy, but he had wanted the boy's parents to pay for what they had done to the Lastrange family just as he had wanted the Potters to pay for what James had done to Regulus.
The newest thing of note in the Daily Prophet was the announcement that Dumbledore would be taking the roll of Proxy for the House of Potter during the first Wizengamot session of the New Year. Fenrir sat the paper aside and looked at the boy in front of him as he continued to eat quietly. Great, now I might actually have to go to the Wizengamot sessions and be his proxy. I suppose I could claim my seat at the same time. The Dark Lord has wanted me to do it for a while, but I suppose that there is no getting around it now. I hope the Dark Lord comes soon. I don't know if I should claim proxy for the seats, thus letting people know that there is an heir to the two houses, or if I should let them lay unclaimed for the moment.
Corvus finished his meal and was now bouncing in his seat while looking at Fenrir with his stormy eyes pleading for the werewolf to pick him up. Sighing, Fenrir stood and picked the boy up and decided to take him to the Portrait Hall and try to get the boy tired out enough that he would actually stay in his room that night. Noticing the Yule decorations that Kreacher had begun to put up, he realized that he had been taking care of the boy for a little over a month and he would have to get the boy something for his first Yule as Corvus Black soon.
He was almost at the stairs when a knock sounded at the front door. He switched directions when he remembered that he had just sent Kreacher off to locate more elves. Another knock sounded as he finally reached the door with Corvus now tugging idly at his hair. Sighing as he removed the little hands from his hair and pulled open the door.
"Hello Fenrir." Standing on the doorstep was a tired Tom Riddle. "I got your note. It was…interesting."
"Yes My Lord, very interesting. I have lots to tell you. But first, here you go." With undisguised glee, Fenrir handed the baby in his arms to the Dark Lord and let out a sigh of relief. "Welcome home My Lord. The study is this way." He did not care that his greeting was less than proper and made him sound slightly unhinged; The Dark Lord was back and could finally help keep up with his magical heir.
The Dark Lord stood on the door step of the Number Twelve Grimmauld Place staring at the little boy that he now had in his arms while Corvus stared at the new man that was holding him while chewing on his fingers. After a few moments Tom began to follow Fenrir through the house. "Intresting."