Trouble Rising

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1961 – 1965

Arcturus ended up re-enacting the 'heir plan' the very last day of nineteen sixty-one, when Orion and Walburga produced a second son that Arcturus named Regulus. This time, Dumbledore didn't try to interfere.

Septimus never asked, but he was fairly sure in later years that Arcturus hexed or potioned one or both of the crazy pair sterile to keep them from reproducing a third time. The risks were too great, and it wouldn't have been Orion and Walburga paying the price, but their children.

Both Sirius and Regulus had escaped obvious problems, but another child might not be so lucky. No one deserved to struggle through life with serious physical or mental problems because their parents were complete idiots. It was best to prevent the problem entirely once they'd proven they could and would reproduce fairly easily.

Things in the Wizengamot were both better and worse. While the faction-based arguing had reduced considerably, the unfortunate result of the deeper, clearer split in the Wizengamot was that the Dark siders were becoming more effective. They were also becoming sneakier, though they lacked a truly gifted orator like Dumbledore as leader in the Wizengamot. They were every bit as bad about trying to sneak legislation past the rest of the Wizengamot at the bottom of otherwise sensible and sane bills as Dumbledore was.

The end result was that the Neutrals were expending all their energy stopping the extremists' legislation, and were largely unable to introduce their own. Every bill was examined in minute detail, and the disagreeable portions that were snuck in were pointed out to the opposing side, with as much of a 'do you really want to let this happen?' twist as they could manage, to vote the bill down. Sometimes they were able to convince enough of the extremist families to vote accordingly that it was enough to keep a bill with an unfortunate rider from passing. Other times it wasn't, and all they could do was watch as more and more of their way of life was eroded, to one extreme or the other.

By far the most unfortunate rider was one that the Dark side managed to get through, mostly by dint of the Light-siders not quite thinking it through despite the Neutrals' attempts to educate them. That rider introduced the 'illegal to do magic outside of school until of age' law, and provided for the creation of an 'underage magic' department in the Ministry.

The Light-siders presumed (wrongly) that the law would level the playing field between Muggleborns and those raised in Wizarding families. They didn't stop to realize that it was impossible for anyone to tell who did magic in a magical area or a thoroughly warded home, even with wands spelled to notify the Ministry.

Worse, the purebloods would either know or quickly find ways to remove the tracking spells on their childrens' wands that the law proposed as a way to track magic done outside of school. Heck, worse came to worse, they could just give their kids a compatible heirloom wand from the family vaults to use during the summer.

This effectively meant that the Wizard raised could and would do magic prior to Hogwarts and during the summer, while the Muggleborns would lose months of needed practice time in the summers, and quite possibly be unable to complete certain homework assignments at all, if the teachers forgot themselves and assigned their students the task of mastering a spell or potion over the summer. It also deepened the divide between the Muggleborns and their Muggle families thanks to the complete inability to truly share and show what they were learning.

More interestingly, Septimus had noticed it before, but it was becoming more and more clear that the Dark-side families were being led by someone. These days, it was becoming clear that the leader wasn't someone in the Wizengamot, which presented all kinds of interesting information. It meant, to Septimus, that whoever their leader was, he wasn't a pureblood. There had been a very, very rare few pureblood families that didn't have representation in the Wizengamot throughout history, but Septimus didn't think that was the case with this particular leader.

The Gaunts came immediately to mind as one of the more recent cases of lack of representation in the Wizengamot. That family had all but lost their family magic due to truly criminal levels of inbreeding and unfitness of any of their male heirs to assume Headship. There were persistent rumors of brothers and sisters marrying in that family – and not just once, but repeatedly. The last time that family had someone who qualified to stand as Head, never mind had a seat in the Wizengamot, had been nearly two centuries ago. The family had eventually died out completely a few years back, with the deaths of the last members of the family.

The clues that the Dark-side leader wasn't a pureblood were few and subtle. They mostly evidenced themselves in a slight change over time in how the Dark-side purebloods were celebrating Samhain, Yule, and Beltane. Septimus had overheard discussions of the celebrations often enough to note that certain aspects of the celebrations had been phased out – aspects that purebloods knew about and adhered to, but a non-pureblood might not, and might not think to include if they were celebrating with followers. That would eventually have something of a trickle-down effect, depending on just how good the leader was, resulting in the purebloods eventually discontinuing those portions in their private celebrations.

What both irked and amused the hell out of Septimus was that the purebloods apparently hadn't caught on to the true origins of their leader. There was absolutely no indication they thought this person less than a pureblood. Septimus supposed that the person was another Dumbledore to manage it, which fit with the way the Dark-side families were managing to work in the Wizengamot now.

Speaking of Dumbledore, by nineteen sixty-five, the man was incredibly close to more or less owning the hearts of the general wizarding populace. He'd managed to craft his image with such skill that the number of people who hadn't fallen for it (for good or ill) could probably be counted on one hand. Even most of the Neutrals were swallowing his sales pitch. It was completely exasperating. These days, suggesting that Dumbledore might not be correct was terrifyingly close to sacrilege. Dumbledore was the Leader of the Light. He had a phoenix familiar. He was all-wise and infallible.

Never mind the fact that it was impossible for a phoenix to be a true familiar. Yes, they could (and did) accompany sufficiently Light-aligned persons for the length of their lives, but it that wasn't a familiar bond. Septimus was still trying to figure out why people were falling for the phoenix-familiar story.

True familiars were rare, which had probably helped with the perception. Only perhaps one in a hundred wizards would acquire a true familiar at some point in their lives. Such creatures were always magical, their lifespans linked to those of their chosen wizard. They never outlived their wizard, though they always lived longer than their breed normally did thanks to the bond with their wizard. That bond rendered them essentially unkillable for their wizard's lifetime, though they could be gravely wounded. Phoenixes were essentially immortal and that prevented them from being able to be familiars.

It worried Septimus that Dumbledore's phoenix hadn't been seen in public in roughly a decade now. It seemed that Dumbledore had gotten the mileage he needed out of its near-constant presence in the early days and ceased to cart it about. It was evidently still around – more than one parent whose child had been called into the Headmaster's office had mentioned their child reporting its presence – but that wasn't all that reassuring. Septimus was still more than slightly convinced that Dumbledore had managed to coerce the poor creature somehow. Unfortunately, he had no way of finding out for sure, nor of freeing the poor thing if that was the case. He didn't exactly have access to the man's office, after all. None of their children were overt troublemakers, and were thus unlikely to be called in to speak with Dumbledore. And if they weren't called in to speak with Dumbledore, their parents wouldn't be called in either.

Septimus discovered near the end of Arthur's second year that he was slightly mistaken about that assumption. It turned out that Dumbledore could and would call kids into his office for reasons other than extreme malfeasance. Arthur reported to his parents that Dumbledore had called him into his office shortly after the end of second year exams, ostensibly to talk to Arthur about his third year elective choices.

"But dad, he really didn't spend much time at all talking about that. Hardly any really. Though he did try to talk me out of Muggle Studies." Arthur pouted a bit when he reported that. "Which I really want to take. He seemed more interested in fishing for information about you and mom. And a little about Uncle Arcturus and little Sirius and Regulus."

Arcturus was, of course, not actually Arthur's uncle, but it was simpler to use that designation, especially considering how much time the two families spent around each other. Marcus, their youngest, was young enough to be a viable playmate for both Sirius and Regulus, as there was only a few years between them. Phillip was just enough older than them to disdain hanging around babies, while Arthur didn't mind babysitting in the least. As a result, they spent a lot of time in Arcturus' company these days. All the Marauders did, as Frank and James, who were closer to Sirius and Regulus' ages than Septimus and Cedrella's boys, had become fast friends with them.

It didn't surprise Septimus in the least that Dumbledore was fishing for information. The gulf between himself and Dumbledore was such that they never spoke amiably, and Dumbledore was thus deprived of virtually all first-hand information about Septimus and Cedrella's plans and doings. Arcturus similarly would have nothing to do with the man.

"I didn't tell him anything." Arthur said, then giggled. "Not like I could, really. I mean, yeah, we talk in letters and stuff, but it's mostly about school and how it's going, how my friends are doing, that sort of thing."

That would, Septimus knew, change in a few years, once Arthur was a bit older. It would become time to start letting Arthur be aware of the activities and decisions Septimus participated in as Head of the Family, as a primer to the more involved lessons regarding politics and their associated shenanigans that Arthur would be dealing with when he came of age. Those particular lessons Septimus planned to leave to Cedrella. Even several decades on, she was the better at understanding that minefield of the pair of them, and he depended heavily on her advice. He honestly couldn't ask for a better tutor for his son and heir in that field, and unlike a number of other patriarchs, he wasn't anywhere stupid enough to disdain Cedrella's knowledge and ability just because she was female.

The good news about Dumbledore's curiosity came with Arthur's next comment.

"I don't like him much, really. Dumbledore, I mean." Arthur told Septimus. "He … I dunno, dad, but he sort of really favors Gryffindors. A lot. He gives out points like they're candy, despite being Headmaster and not really, you know, involved in the teaching and stuff. And he's all but going mad trying to figure out who the Marauders are, trying to stop them – despite the fact they only target the bullies that make everyone else's lives a misery. Fabian and Gideon warned me'n my roommates to learn Occlumency as soon as we can – apparently, it's been suspected for years that Dumbledore's a Legilimens. I think they might be right – he didn't seem too happy when I didn't want to look him in the eye when he had me in his office."

Well, at least Arthur was forming a less-than-sterling opinion of Dumbledore all on his own. It was a relief to Septimus. He hadn't wanted to contemplate trying to unscrew his son's thinking where that man was concerned if he started worshipping Dumbledore like so many did.

It was through Fabian and Gideon Prewitt, sixth years and part of that generation's Marauders, that Arthur met (and swiftly became utterly smitten with) Molly, their younger sister. She was in the same year as Arthur, but Arthur, like most pre-pubescent boys, had more or less ignored her existence for the first few years they were in school together. It wasn't until fourth year that Arthur started having hearts in his eyes where she was concerned.

It helped that she was more than happy to step up and take one of the places her brothers would be vacating in the Marauders. At first, Septimus wasn't entirely sure that Molly would be a good match for Arthur.

Mostly because she had a loud, fierce, vibrant personality that could all too easily overwhelm Arthur's far quieter personality. By the end of their fourth year, though, it was becoming obvious that the blooming friendship-leaning-to-more between them was doing both of them a world of good. Arthur provided an apparently much-needed stabilizing influence for Molly's explosive temperament. Better still, rather than her overwhelming Arthur, she had a tendency to fire him up about things more than he otherwise would have been on his own. She actively encouraged him to voice his opinions and act with more surety, rather than bludgeoning him into agreeing with her opinions about things. If that pattern continued and held true, Septimus would have no problem at all approving of the pairing. However, the eventual fate of their barely-begun romance was yet to be seen.

By late in nineteen sixty-five, it was becoming obvious that Sirius at least was indeed affected by inbreeding, though thanks be to a far lesser degree than anyone had feared might happen. He seemed to have inherited some small measure of the streak of insanity that ran through the Black line, though it was far less marked than what one of his cousins, young Bellatrix, suffered from. Sirius mostly seemed to suffer from unpredictable, uncontrollable mood shifts.

In the muggle world, the diagnosis would have been bipolar disorder, but such things were not known about in the wizarding world, and merely got lumped under the blanket label of 'insanity'. Fortunately, Sirius' mood instability wasn't severe, and Arcturus had begun to teach the boy the rudiments of Occlumency far younger than was normally done in the hopes that the mental discipline would assist in leveling Sirius' moods out. He was also consulting with Healers regarding potions regimens to help with the problem, among other possible solutions.