Disclaimer: I own nothing! Also, please forgive my long absence.
"Did you think you were clever? Daring? That nobody would notice?" said Addie in her dressing gown pacing back and forth angrily. Peter, thankfully, was still asleep. The past events were taking their toll on him.
"Well mum, we figured that by the time morning came we'd be in London." Said Portia a bit cheekily. Persephone nudged her side repeatedly to get her to stop talking. This was no time to be cheeky.
"What?!" said Addie running her hands through her light brown hair in an attempt to calm down.
"Well mum, we couldn't exactly floo to The Noble and Most Ancient house of Black because Galatea usually blocks it on her side so we decided to take the long way." Said Portia. Addie gave her a long suffering look. Persephone looked at the indent she was making in the velvet carpet with her boot. This was turning out to be a long night.
"Why did you think that it would be alright to go in the first place? Are you mad? You could have gotten killed, or lost, or seen!" said Addie throwing her hands up in frustration. Beadle, Pricilla, the twins, and Pumpkin were all watching from the doorway unnoticed by everyone. They watched in rapt attention as their mother went onto her tirade. Even little Pumpkin who was only one didn't make a sound.
"It's not like the statute of secrecy will mean anything in few years." Muttered Portia. Persephone tugged on the back of her dress to get her to stop talking. They weren't supposed to reveal the future.
"What, exactly, does that mean daughter?" asked Addie suddenly feeling cold. Now it was Portia's turn to be sheepish.
"Nothing mum." Said Portia turning to make her exit, her dress flourishing behind her and hitting Persephone who making her much less dramatic exit. Her younger siblings scuttled farther down the hallway and were attempting to hide behind a side table. Beadle, being the oldest and the only boy there made shushing motions with his hands. The twins, Scarlett and Lavender, covered their youngest sister Pumpkin's mouth. They didn't know what a statute of secrecy was but they knew that secrets were important.
"No, you will both tell me now what you meant or so help me I'll send you away to Lady Splendora's Finishing School for Girls faster than you can say 'Quiddich'." Said Addie. Portia gritted her teeth and weighed her options. She was Portia Pettigrew, almost as brilliant as Galatea Black, she didn't need to go to some finishing school with some satin clad squib ninnies. Persephone had a look of agreement on her face, she didn't want to be finished either.
"Fine, I'll tell you what I can mum but I could get in trouble." Said Portia turning to face her mother. She looked much older than her fourteen years then.
"From who?" asked Addie
"The powers that be." Answered Portia and Persephone. Addie looked confused, had they been mucking around with the government?
"The government? The Palace of Justice?" asked Addie a million terrible things running through her mind. Portia shook her head.
"Fey things, mum. They can be rather frightening but Galatea's so called husband is alright I suppose." Said Portia
"If he can so be called." Said Persephone earning her a look from Portia. She rolled her greyish eyes to the ceiling. Honestly!
"They don't live together or sleep together and their marriage license is from the American ministry of magic, doesn't have his real name, age or anything, and I'm pretty sure that Galatea lied about her age on it." Said Persephone
"Yeah, and in a few years everybody will be too afraid of us to say anything. Besides, she has the ring and that's what counts." Said Portia smugly.
"A wedding ring means nothing if there is no license backing it up, and what exactly do you three mean by everybody will be too afraid of you?" said Addie more confused than ever. Being afraid of Galatea she could understand, Galatea Black was fast becoming one of the movers and shakers of their world but her first born daughter Portia and Margaretta's sickly daughter Persephone?
"I was referring to the ring showing that she's head of the House of Black, mum." Said Portia. Persephone nodded. Addie sensed that they were avoiding the full question.
"And why, pray tell, would people be afraid of you?" said Addie. Portia motioned for her to sit down and she did. She got the feeling that this would be a long story.
"You know that Timothy isn't one hundred percent human right? And that Galatea went to Avalon?" said Portia slowly. Addie nodded.
"And you know that Avalon isn't an easy place to get to, even for sister by herself let alone with all of us." Said Persephone. Addie nodded again.
"Mum, we're not lying about this. Please don't flip out, and I can't stress that enough. Alright, we can travel through time and space in an instant and be back again." Said Portia. Addie looked at her for a long time. The silence was weighing down on them like a shower of thick pea soup and molasses.
"How old are you?" asked Addie. Portia and Persephone gave each other bewildered looks. They were expecting to be yelled at for keeping something like this from her, punished for lying so blatantly, or even carted off to an insane asylum where they'd make their daring escape and run away to Tahiti or Bermuda, some other place tropical and warm. This was…odd.
"We don't know but Puck set us back to our original ages. Mum…are you alright?" asked Portia slowly. Persephone grabbed her arm and pulled her in close.
"Maybe she's not really your mum." Said Persephone lowly. Addie let out a barking laugh.
"Aside from the fact that one day you went upstairs and then returned with Timothy, quite the shock I might add, I've known about that. I had assumed that a fey had helped you but know that I can see you do this on your own…well this is fascinating isn't it?" laughed Addie
"Well actually we use magical artifacts to travel to parallel worlds as well as the past and future." Said Persephone. Addie stopped laughing and stared at her.
"Parallel worlds?" asked Addie in a disbelieving tone. She knew the dead and fey lived on a different plain of existence but to think that there were other worlds, other versions of her and her family in existence, it boggled the mind.
"Yes, we've been to one where people's souls walk outside their bodies in the form of animals and Galatea said that she was in a place called…something made up sounding with an 's'…"
"Shamballa, Portia. It's where she learned that Alchemy with the funny circles." Said Persephone helpfully.
"Ah yes, Shamballa. She never could get it to work here though." Said Portia with a sour expression on her face. New magics were always good, it could give her an edge above everyone else even if the circles looked needlessly complicated.
"Yes, but she said that it could do amazing things there." Said Persephone. Galatea had brought back several muggle pictures of that world and it looked amazing. The boy with the metal arm was kind of cute too. She could have sworn she had seen him on her travels to Grindelwald's time.
"And then she came back and wouldn't speak to anyone for a while." Said Portia. Addie was too stunned to speak and she could only make a small yelping sound. They had just been traversing these worlds and spoke of it like it was a simple sigh seeing trip through a distant land.
"Yes aunt Addie, it was when she told everyone she had the late baby blues. I don't know what happened but it must have been bad." Said Persephone.
"Girls….?" Said Addie quietly. Portia and Persephone looked at her with wide eyes. They thought that she'd be alright with everything because she already knew about the time and space travel. Yet another miscalculation on Portia's part.
"Yes?" they said quietly. The silence was broken only by the soft cries of one of the babies, probably Pumpkin, Bertie's cries were weaker.
"I need a moment." Said Addie. They looked at her and then each other. A short silent conversation took place before they too took their leave into the inky blackness of the hallway.
After much thought and brooding Sirius knew what he had to do. He needed to get to Dumbledore and assemble the old crowd before stopping whatever dark plan these dark people were planning darkly. He hated dark magic with a white hot fiery passion usually reserved for lovemaking. He shook his head, now was not the time for such thoughts. From his old bedroom he had managed to find his old stash of money he had saved for emergencies. Thank Merlin he had forgotten it in the flurry of activity the night his parents finally threw him out. If he could only get close enough to Hogsmeade he could apparate there and then walk the rest of the way to Hogwarts and put his plan into motion. Yes, and then Peter would pay.
"Finally free." Muttered Sirius as he thought of getting back to his old life, minus two of the Marauders but he'd avenge James by killing Peter. He crept through the hallway careful not to wake anyone, never questioning why a soft glow lit his way. He assumed that it was coming from that…boy's room. Little tykes were often afraid of the dark. It struck him as funny, a dark creature like him being afraid of the dark. Not that he had anything against half breeds, Hagrid and Flitwick were half breeds and they were perfectly nice. Fey were dark creatures though, tricksters, and therefore a half fey was a dark creature. He was so lost in his musing that he tripped over his own grandson.
"Watch where you're going!" said Timothy angrily. He had been so engrossed in his drawings that he didn't hear the strange dog man creeping around. He was pissed now through, his chalk was broken and his magic circle was smudged.
"What are you doing up at this hour? Get back to bed!" whispered Sirius. Timothy merely stuck out his tongue and continued with his work. He didn't feel tired so he went into his mother's secret study and took out one of her magic books. This one felt strange but from what he could read it was very cool magic in it. The key was these circles. He didn't feel like drawing them in his own bedroom, there were too many spaces for evil things to hide so he drew them in the hallway by gas light.
"You can't make me. Besides, I'm doing very important work." Said Timothy. Sirius quirked an eyebrow at the chalk circles on the walls.
"You shouldn't draw on the walls, at the very least your mum will be cross with you." Said Sirius. Timothy flew up closer to the ceiling to complete the drawing inside the circle. Sirius resisted the impulse to gasp, no matter how many times he witnessed it the fact that this child could fly was amazing.
"I'm doing magic. The book said that magic was destroying and then building again or something like that so I'm going to destroy this wall and bring it back again blue. See, I have some blue crayons there because the book also said that I needed something of equal value. I think that's what it said anyway, I dunno it's a grownup book and I read like a kid." Said Timothy as he finished. He put his hands to the wall and began to pour his energy into it. The circle began to glow and the energy around them crackled and fizzled. Sirius pulled Timothy away as the wall collapsed. He let Timothy go and then ran away through the rubble to make his mistake. Thank Merlin that was only the wall between the hallway and the bathroom.