Changes and Problems

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1950 – 1952

Arthur quickly became the apple of Septimus' eye, and it had nothing to do with him being the Weasley heir. Septimus spent as much time as he possibly could with the little tyke. Cedrella was a highly amused enabler in this once she was completely back on her feet after the rather stressful birth. She'd always taken lunch with Septimus, as it was pretty much the only time they got to see each other during the day. After Arthur was born, he was included in the lunches as a matter of course.

This, despite the fact it wasn't exactly the 'proper' way to raise a child, at least not by the standards Cedrella had grown up with. She'd not taken a meal with her family until she was five and had begun her lessons, and even then it had been a rare treat until she was judged worthy of attending the Children's Ball.

They actually had enough to hire on a nanny if only barely, but Septimus and Cedrella had talked and decided it was a completely unnecessary expense. Maybe once they had more than one child a nanny would become necessary, but certainly not with one. Septimus managed to convince Cedrella fairly easily in this regard, as his parents had never used one, and he and his brothers had turned out just fine. Granted, they were all a touch rougher around the edges manners-wise than the cream of society liked to see, but they were otherwise fine.

Playing with Arthur and sharing meals swiftly became the best part of their days. Sometime shortly after Arthur's birth, Sirius began to act a touch oddly. It wasn't all that noticeable at first, which made pinpointing when he started going odd difficult, but it got worse fairly quickly. He became erratic, capricious, occasionally cruel and ... well, generally not himself.

If it hadn't been for the fact he was Head of the Family, Septimus and Cedrella both would have suspected some sort of behavior-altering potion, but that sort of thing fit under the 'magical coercion' that Heads were protected against. Cedrella's favorite theory involved a long-term poison that had erratic behavior as a side effect, which wasn't covered under the protections. Septimus agreed it was possible, but privately wondered if the streak of near-insanity that tended to pop up in the Black family from time to time wasn't rearing its head. The only problem with that was that it normally became clear a Black was a sufferer when they were still a child.

Whatever was going on, it wasn't detectable by spell or potion. Cedrella tried repeatedly as Sirius' behavior and decision making ability deteriorated, to no avail. She'd even consulted with Mediwizards, and snuck one into Sirius' presence long enough for them to throw Healer-level detection spells at him to no effect.

Meanwhile, Septimus had to deal with the Wizengamot. The situation there continued to deteriorate, much to his exasperation. Practically nothing was getting done, no matter what he and Harfang did. They'd gained one or two allies, but most of the old members were content to stick with their existing power blocks, too busy fighting to form blocks under their leadership to want to ally with them, or inclined to treat them like they were still children. It was more than a little exasperating, and was making forming their own block rather difficult. They had a feeling they'd end up having to wait for a while longer, until some of the old coots started dying off and their sons took over. Maybe then they'd have more success.

Worse, the chaos and infighting was spreading outside of the Wizengamot. Normally, what happened in the Wizengamot stayed there for the most part, but the antagonism between various Heads was spreading to their families, resulting in a number of rather tense moments at the Children's Balls, from what Septimus was hearing. Several families that normally hosted parties near Yule, Samhain or Beltane started becoming more selective about their invitations, disincluding those their Heads were feuding with in the Wizengamot.

Those days also marked the first time the epithet 'mudblood' was heard to fall from someone's lips. It was soon clear that the epithet was coming from people who were roughly ten years younger than Septimus – in the age group with his brother Bilius. Predictably, it was coming from scions of the Darker families, Orion and Walburga Black chief among them. Abraxas Malfoy wasn't far behind them, though, despite being much nearer Septimus' age.

Then, at the start of the 1951-52 school year, Headmaster Dippet announced his intention to retire at the end of that school year, and named Albus Dumbledore as both his Deputy Headmaster and successor. The choice of successor was greeted with near-universal approval from the Light and Neutral families in a rather disconcerting display of support. A young woman named Minerva McGonagall was also announced as Dumbledore's anticipated replacement as Transfiguration teacher and Head of Gryffindor House.

Septimus and Cedrella had been one of the few to be displeased at the news of Dumbledore's promotion, the others being the rest of the Marauders. Having seen Dumbledore in action around the Ministry and Diagon Alley, not to mention remembering their school days, all six were rather suspicious and concerned. They could see that Dumbledore was up to something, but what, they couldn't quite figure out. The one thing they all agreed on was that this was only the beginning for the man, and that there would be more to come.

It was to the point that the Marauders were wondering if Dumbledore hadn't been Sorted Slytherin, despite everyone thinking he was as Gryffindor as it got. They suspected the assumption of Gryffindor was based more on the phoenix's presence and him kicking Grindlewald's butt than anything else, despite the fact that neither thing precluded Dumbledore having been Slytherin. Sadly, there weren't all that many people still living who had gone to school with Dumbledore. Those that remained were either supporters or not talking, which made finding out if their suspicions were correct difficult.

The news was bad mostly because the Headmaster of Hogwarts had a seat in the Wizengamot. As the head educator of the upcoming generation, it had long ago been decided the Headmaster should be aware of and able to contribute to the lawmaking process. Traditionally, the seat was proxied by someone in the Headmaster's family, as the Headmaster was generally too busy to attend meetings himself. This seat would give Dumbledore *two* votes, as he was also Head of Family Dumbledore. Septimus was firmly of the mind that the man didn't need even one vote, never mind two.

The Marauders were very sure that wouldn't be the case with Dumbledore. For one, no one was even sure if he had family. If he did, they were clearly not speaking to each other, which meant Dumbledore was unlikely to ask them to proxy for him. How Dumbledore planned on handling that problem no one was sure, but Septimus was betting it wouldn't end well. He already had many of the Light and Neutral families looking on him with favor, and more than a few agreeing with his stances on things.

The worst part of it was, Septimus agreed with a number of things Dumbledore was saying, at least in theory. Unfortunately, there was a huge gap between what Dumbledore said and what he actually did. Worse, most of what Dumbledore was saying bothered Septimus rather a lot. He wouldn't really have paid it any mind – after all, not even the Marauders agreed on every issue – except for the fact that Dumbledore had an uncomfortable level of power and influence for a single man who had been all but unknown a decade ago.

From what Septimus knew, Dumbledore had been content to allow his Family vote to be proxied prior to his involvement in the War, and the proxy had never introduced any possible bills or taken any memorable stances on any particular issue. Dumbledore's sudden interest in lobbying and politics was worrisome. It made Septimus pay more attention to what he was saying and doing. It didn't help that Dumbledore had begun to attempt to get chummy with Septimus and Harfang, clearly trying to get them on his side. The grandfatherly attitude and subtle reminders of their childhood foibles – an attempt to remind them he was older and wiser and ought to be allowed to guide them, Septimus assumed – didn't go over quite as well as Dumbledore had hoped, given their opinions of him during their school days.

Then, just to make things even worse – there was a wedding announced. Between Orion and Walburga Black. The Marauders were utterly horrified.

"They're second cousins!" Dorea practically shouted, when the three families met up to talk about it. "It's disgusting! Why are Arcturus, Pollux, and Sirius letting this happen?" She gave a convulsive shudder.

Cedrella wasn't in much better shape. "I don't understand it either, Dorea. It's utterly foul. Sirius … well, he's been getting more and more erratic over the last couple years, so I can understand why he is letting this happen, but what hold have those two got over their parents that they're permitting this to happen? Do you have any idea, Dorea? Pollux is your brother."

"I … I don't know." Dorea said on a sigh. "Honestly, our part of the family hasn't ever been quite right that I can remember." She winced. "I think because of Marius. I don't remember him – I was only three when he was cast out. At least, I hope to Merlin it was 'only' cast out – but it affected Pollux and Cassiopeia, I think. Pollux especially. Marius was cast out just before Pollux went to Hogwarts, from what I discovered later."

Marius was the squib boy child Septimus had heard about all those years ago, but hadn't known for sure he existed until Dorea joined their number. She had been able to confirm his existence, though she'd only spoken of him once or twice before now. While she had been far too young to have any real memory of him, and was thus somewhat less affected than her siblings, she was still bothered by the whole thing.

"That would have an effect on a person." Septimus agreed. "Which just leaves the question of what's going on with Sirius and Arcturus to allow this. I know Cedrella's done diagnostics on Sirius several times, since she is still his favorite of you girls, but she's come up with nothing."

"Which either means this is the insanity our family deals with popping up, or a long-lasting potion of some sort that leaves no trace of its presence in the body. Of which there are far too many possibilities." Callidora said. "And most of them don't fall under the 'anti-coercion protection' Family Heads enjoy, as their primary uses are for other things, and the mental instability is a side effect."

"The worst part is that pair is going to eventually be Head of the family." Callidora continued with a moue of distaste. "That is going to be a disaster. And there isn't a damn thing any of us can do about it."

They came close to deciding not to attend the party after the wedding, but in the end decided to go, half-hoping the family magics would have none of this nonsense. Unfortunately, the vows took, which they all found incredible. Orion and Walburga were entirely too smug for Septimus' taste during the party, and were rather conspicuous in staying longer than was usually the case.

That said, Septimus took an unholy amount of glee in taking part in the 'keep the newlyweds from disappearing' game when they finally began to try to disappear from the party. So did the rest of the Marauders. Between the six of them and some unscheduled and unexpected assistance from Arthur, who grabbed hold of Walburga's hair when Cedrella was stalling her and got tangled up – they managed to stall the couple almost half an hour all on their own.

Two months after the wedding, Sirius died unexpectedly.

The timing of it all was so suspicious that it made Septimus' teeth ache. The worst part of it was that there was nothing any of them could do – whatever had been done to Sirius had managed to get around the protections of the family magic, and while Arcturus was now protected himself, he hadn't been prior to taking up the mantle, which meant that for all anyone knew, he could have been under the Imperius when he agreed to let Walburga marry Orion.

Worse yet, in a move that all but confirmed the Marauders' suspicions about the Orion/Walburga marriage, Pollux and his wife retreated to a country house and more or less barricaded themselves in, refusing all visitors, even their own children and siblings.

"The only good news in this entire mess is that it's very unlikely Orion will ever become Head, despite him thinking otherwise." Septimus told Cedrella in the aftermath. "The odds on the family magic finding him worthy of being Head are miniscule. But their kids would be the first in line to take up the mantle if he fails the test, and he and Walburga will be able to mold those kids any way they please until then."

"Which will be nearly as bad for the family as if Orion managed to make Head." Cedrella said with a sigh. "And might be worse, because Merlin alone knows what poison those two will whisper in their children's' ears."

"We'll do what we can to counteract it." Septimus promised her. "At the absolute worst, we'll see them in the summer after they're eligible for the Ball. And we can write them once they're old enough to read. It'll help."

"It just feels like the whole world has begun to go mad." Cedrella said. "And there doesn't seem to be anything we can do to stop it."

"Maybe not, but we'll try our hardest anyway." Septimus told her. "You never know when it'll make a difference."