Chapter 23: The Fun Never Ends

Deeper and deeper they went until Meissa lost count of how many floors there were and had a dull ache in her legs - only then did they arrive at the bottom - the latest floor to be added to the crypt. This floor was only half filled and she saw that it held most of her great-grandfather's generation and some of her grandfather's.

A floor meant for the latest generation and her heart broke, realizing what it meant.

One day she'd be laying her mother in this tomb. Her aunt. Her cousin. One day she'd be in this tomb as well.

Or she could rot out there away from all of this if there is not a generation to come.

It was all terrifying, realizing that one day she'd be joining the dead of her family. Offering her body up to the magic that protects the family.

"There we go," Narcissa whispers as she waved her wand, the casket settling into a little slot right next to another. Meissa could only reckon that her uncle laid in that one. And somewhere in this room her Grandfather Pollux was in here too.

Except, it wasn't really him, was it?

"We'll be joining them one day," Meissa mutters quietly, looking around.

Narcissa glances at her niece at her words, having not expected her to say anything after falling quiet in the trek down the stairs. "Hopefully that will not be for a long time," the blonde woman remarks. "And I hope your mother never sees a day where she buries you before her time," she adds in while offering Meissa her hand, smiling slightly when the eleven year old took and held onto her hand tightly. "I don't think your mother would survive it if she had to bury you."

"Really?" she hears Meissa ask softly, her voice heartbreaking to listen to. It was a sharp reminder that Meissa hasn't been held by her mother since she was a year old.

"She loved you dearly, Meissa. Her little star in the darkness," Narcissa reconfirms for her as they started the walk back up the stairs. "You were an impossible one - an unexpected gift."

"Would she be proud of me?"

"I don't think she would ever disapprove of you - so long you were true to yourself."

She felt Meissa's hand tighten around hers and knew that her niece would need more time to believe that. It was moments like these that Narcissa saw the small insecure girl underneath the fierce protective girl.

It was these moments that made her wonder if her sister would disapprove of the way her daughter had been raised - of the things that had occurred. If she'd done something or realized the signs long before either of them had.

Narcissa remembered that time very well. It had only just been a few short years ago. A time when everything seemed normal until one particularly frightening day. After that everything she knew was gone, shaken by its foundations.

Meissa was no longer that sweet innocent child after that day.

It made Narcissa sick to her stomach, living with the knowledge that she failed her sister. And sometimes, when she looks into the eyes of her niece, she's forced to remember that Meissa is the one who is suffering the most.

Draco probably will never understand how his cousin became like this. And Narcissa's not sure if she ever wants him to understand. Meissa barely even speaks of that day - Narcissa wasn't even sure if she was actually processing everything or just burying it somewhere deep. From what little Severus has told her Meissa was not improving at all. It was a bit alarming, realizing that her niece has spent the last few years worsening.

"Aunt Cissy?"

"Yes?"

Meissa looks up at her, "Why doesn't anyone live here anymore?"

"No one wants to deal with the various wards that comes with living here," Narcissa answered simply. "The entire estate is protected by wards that are centuries old. No one alive knows what has been applied to the estates and the process to allow guests in temporarily was not worth it to our more recent ancestors."

"So they bought the Black Manor?"

"Yes."

"But…" Narcissa looks at her encouragingly, curious about what her niece is going to bring up. "Wasn't grandfather and grandmother killed in the Black Manor?"

Narcissa's eyebrows furrowing was the only sign of Meissa's words registering. It had been true that her parents, Meissa's grandparents, had been killed within the supposed safety of the Black Manor.

By their eldest daughter's hands no less.

She wasn't too sure if her niece knew about that fact. She wasn't even sure how Meissa knew about her grandparents dying in the very home she lives in with her godfather.

"How did you know about that?" Narcissa asked instead of answering - even if the question indirectly answered the question.

"The paintings really like to talk," she deadpans.

"Severus hasn't mentioned anything like this to me."

"They don't talk when he's around," she remarks drily. "They say that he's an outsider, even if he's my godfather."

"Ah." It must have been one of the paintings of a recent ancestor. "What else do they say?"

"Mm… they say a lot of things," Meissa answered vaguely. "I can tell they get really lonely cause of how much they talk. They're always telling me about what kind of girl I should be and what the family will expect of me." A frown appeared on the young girl's face. "There's a lot of expectations for being a member of the Black family."

"Yes, there is," she agrees, recalling her own childhood. She also recalled the emptiness that seemed to reside in her father's heart - he may have been caring and loving towards herself but in hindsight she realized he had not cared one wit about his eldest daughter or even his second eldest.

Andromeda had been a very studious girl growing up, kind and caring to just about anyone. Bella had always been a bit of a rebel in the family - as wild as her own daughter now that Narcissa considers it. They used to get along so well growing up - sure, Bella may had her moments of darkness and Andromeda may have been filled with concern for just about everything. Still, Narcissa thought that they would always be together, sisters forever.

"Aunt Cissy?" she hears Meissa's voice call her out of her thoughts. "That wasn't there before."

The exact words took a second to register for the woman but once it clicked she looked sharply ahead of them - how did she miss the fact that they had managed to scale all the way to the top of the stairs?

What she saw worried her instantly - the Keep's Guardian has been awoken.

~MJB~

Meissa had been glancing into the rooms as they spoke about the family. And had incidentally been leading her Aunt up the stairs when it became clear to her that she was distracted with thoughts about something. It wasn't until they had reached the first landing that she realized something was up.

She just didn't expect to see a large armored something standing in the middle of the hallway outside the still open door.

That was when she called her Aunt out of her thoughts.

"That's the Keep's Guardian," she hears her whisper, the Lumos spell extinguished with a flick of her wrist. "I don't know why he'd be awake now…"

"What would waken him?"

"Intruders, personal curiosity," Narcissa listed the two that popped up into her mind.

"Personal curiosity?" the young Slytherin repeated.

"Yes," the blonde whispers, "the Guardian is the only one who lives here now - I doubt the gargoyles keep him much company with the Black family gone."

"Do you think he's interested in us because we're here?" Meissa asks, curious.

"I don't see why," Narcissa answers, "this is not my first visit here."

"But it's mine," Meissa points out. Narcissa had to agree with her niece on this matter but if Meissa's presence is the reason for the Keep's Guardian's awakening then she dreads to find out what he would do.

"Child," they hear an eerie, echoing, voice - snapping them out of the whispering to look at the fully armored spirit standing in the hall.

Narcissa was dismayed to see that the Guardian was positioned just right to prevent an easy escape from the stairwell.

"Me?" Meissa looked at the armored spirit.

"Long awaited child, prophesied by the one who does not answer," the guardian intoned, its' voice almost monotonous if it wasn't for the slightest hint of excitement. It was like they've been waiting for the prophesied child. "The time draws near," the spirit continues, unheedful of the confused and puzzled looks he was receiving from the pair. "The time to summon the willful one. Return to the Keep when it is time."

"Uh… okay?"

As if satisfied with her response the spirit turned and disappeared through a wall and the previously solid looking armor went along with it.

Meissa looked up at her aunt who was giving her a disbelieving look. "Things are rarely ever simple with you," the Malfoy matriarch remarked, getting a sheepish look from her niece.

It would figure that the girl's first visit to the Keep would result in her being recognized in some kind of prophecy.

"I wonder who spoke the prophecy," she looked at her niece.

"Would there be a record of it?"

"It's likely, if someone was there to record it."

"Where could we go to look?"

"Mm… I'll ask about that," Narcissa decides before escorting her niece through the Keep. She did not wish to tempt the spirit's seeming patience with them.

There will be no time to visit the gargoyles - it was a pity, she thought Meissa would be interested in meeting the Chief of the gargoyles. Swiftclaw was the leader of the Gargoyles - had been for over two hundreds if what her grandfather told her is true - and was likely one of the most intelligent gargoyle among the clan.

"It's time for you to be getting back to Hogwarts."

"Aw…" Meissa muttered, glancing up towards the roof where she had originally seen the gargoyle statues. The sun was starting to set but there was still lights out - just enough for her to see the various gargoyles perched along the nooks and crannies of the Keep. Some looked like they were bipedal, standing proudly on legs that sort of reminded her of dogs - if she had to think about it like that. She couldn't really see them that well and her aunt was trying to usher her quickly to the portkey's location.

Still, she thought they were really formidable, with their wings stretched out as if they had turned to stone while roaring.

She really hoped she gets a chance to talk with them one day.

~MJB~

Meissa sighed as she stepped through the fireplace, immediately dusting off her traveling cloak to rid herself of the ashes before she bothers to remove the cloak from her shoulders. As amazing as the Black Castle had been she felt exhausted and she had hundreds of questioning running through her head.

Who was the 'one who does not answer' and why is it important that she - if she was the child born out of time - called upon them? For that matter, why is she born out of time? Was she destined to die young? Or maybe it was talking about her being born premature? Was she born premature?

She had to stop thinking about that in order to keep her mind from exploding from the thoughts.

"Meissa," she heard her godfather before he appeared through the doorway leading to his private chambers.

"Uncle Sevy," she greeted as she hung her traveling cloak up on the hook by the fireplace.

"I'd ask how the ritual went but seeing that you are back hours after you were supposed to return I take it that things did not go well."

"Actually," Meissa picked up her skirts to keep them from dragging along the floor - and from tripping her up, "it went well enough. I got to see part of the Keep and some of its guardians."

Severus arched an eyebrow at her. He had heard about the Black Castle - the resting place of all members of the House of Black, unless they were disowned - and some of the more commonly known aspects of the ancestral home of the House. He knew that he had no hopes of ever seeing the Black Castle, even if he was Meissa's legal and magical guardian he knew that he would never see the inside of the castle. "How was it?" he finally asked.

"It's… really beautiful," she confessed with a half-smile. "The gardens are absolutely amazing," she gushed. "There's both kinds of plants there! Magical and non-magical! And because no one has been there to keep the gardens they look like jungles!"

"You seem to have enjoyed your first time."

"Yeah," Meissa agreed with a smile, a true genuine smile. It quickly disappeared but Snape knew that she must have been truly happy there. She's never been one to display any emotions - that is, any positive emotions like happiness. Anger and hatred she had no problems showing.

"I should probably head to the common room," she headed for the door, intending to leave through the hallway. It didn't seem like her godfather had anything to say to her.

"Wait." She turns to look at him. "Are you still taking your potions?"

"Uh…" she turned her gaze away - trying to remember when was the last time she had taken her potions. It seemed so long ago…

"Meissa…" Severus started in a warning tone.

She ducks her head slightly, looking every bit the child that knows she'd be told off for something. "I know, Uncle Sevy," she mutters, "but last week was…"

"Chaotic," he concluded for her, realizing that he should have been more proactive in ensuring her safety. He dreaded the thought of having to face her mother and explain to her why he had not been able to prevent certain injuries from occurring.

There was a lot he would need to explain to Meissa's mother when the time comes - a prospect he will never be willing to entertain.

One thing for sure, he had a distinct feeling that it is too late to try and salvage this year's potion regime. Which would mean that she'd have to start from the beginning - again. He hadn't been able to salvage the previous regime - which meant that Meissa had to start over from the beginning, a full month into her first year in Hogwarts. He was mildly grateful that due to being on the potions already meant that it didn't take too long for the potions to bring Meissa's unstable emotions to a more manageable level.

The first time she ever took the potions it took half a month for the potions to start working for the nine year old. Eight and a half months of increasingly worsening rages - and the time she spent locked up in her room out of shame for her actions - led the Potion Master to create a series of potions for the girl.

There was a large part of him that worried that perhaps the potions weren't the best way to help her with her destructive moods but he hadn't known what else he could do. Going to St. Mungo had been out of the question since the he and the Malfoy family did not trust any Healers well enough to believe that they would stay impartial while treating a child of a Death Eater.

"Uncle Sevy?" he hears his goddaughter.

"Yes?"

"… I'm going to have to restart my potions again, aren't I?"

"I'm afraid so." He watched her face falls, her shoulders slumping as she accepted his words.

"I just… I want it to be over," he hears her whisper, averting her gaze from him.

"I know…" He studies her for a moment before he considers something.

He and Narcissa had been the ones in charge of making sure that she was taking her potions. He's not even sure if Draco knew of the importance of them - his goddaughter has been seen taking a variety of potions over the years, the migraine potions possibly being the most frequent and consistent of them all.

Yet he wondered if it would do Meissa some good if she had someone…

"Have you considered asking Greengrass for help?" he inquired, looking at her. When he sees her blinking owlishly at him he knew that she had not.

"Why would-?"

"Correct me if I am wrong, but Greengrass cares for you," he injects.

"Yes…"

"Do you trust her?"

"Of course!" the young Black heiress declared without a shred of hesitation.

"Then perhaps consider informing her of your regime. I have no doubt in my mind that she would volunteer to help make sure you take your potions."

Meissa looks at him wide eyed before she smiled brightly. "Okay Uncle Sevy!" she declared before she gave him a brief - he doubted it was more than a second - hug before dashing out of the room.

He shakes his head in amusement before he turned to prepare for bed.

~MJB~

Meissa bounced on the balls of her feet, looking back and forth as she searched for Hermione. Daphne was waiting patiently besides her, curious about what had the Black heiress anxious. She knew that Meissa had been given permission to leave campus to attend to her Great Grand Aunt's funeral. Had been escorted by their Head of House but beyond that Daphne knew nothing about what had happened while the heiress was outside of school grounds.

She had been almost giddy when she shown up in the dorms, just after curfew, but refused to tell her why and promised that she would tell her when they find Hermione.

"Daphne," Meissa muttered as she turned her head this way and that way, "Do you see Hermione?"

"Mm… no, not at all," she answered, doing a quick scan through the Great Hall. "In fact, I don't think I see the boys either."

"Odd," Meissa muttered, searching the Hall.

"Meissa," Daphne called her friend's attention, noticing for the first time that a large amount of points was missing from the Gryffindor hourglass. "What did the Gyffindors do to lose so many points?"

"How should I know? I wasn't here yesterday."

"…"

The girls looked at each other before going to search for Hermione, Harry, and Ron.

It didn't take them long to find the trio - the whispers and loud insults were a pretty good indicator of where the 'Golden Boy' would be. Meissa paused once she found an upperclassman who gleefully filled them in.

It was known that Harry Potter and Hermione Granger was caught at the stairs of the tallest astronomy tower and that Neville Longbottom was found out of bed - Meissa was a bit curious as to why the nervous boy was breaking the rules willingly - and lost a hundred fifty points in the span of one night.

"It would be perfect," the upperclassman remarks, "If Malfoy hadn't lost us some points last night."

"Wait, what?" the two girls injected, this being the first time they heard of this.

"Yeah. Apparently Malfoy was out of bed last night and was caught by Professor McGonagall. She took twenty points from him or something like that. Granted it's not as bad as the Gryffindor's loss."

"Did he get punished too?" Meissa asked, planning as she was going to teach her cousin a lesson for breaking the rules.

"Yup. Was taken to Professor Snape last night. I don't know what he got for detention though."

"Oh," Meissa sighed, rubbing her forehead. "I'm going to hex the bloody hell out of him when I find him," she muttered softly.

"Meissa," Daphne caught her attention, pointing out the three Gryffindors they were looking for.

"Right," the Black heiress muttered, excusing herself from the upperclassman's presence to go over to them. She grabs Hermione by the elbow and pulled her out of the crowd, leaving Harry and Ron to follow them - which she was sure they would since they weren't likely to leave a fellow Gryffindor alone in the presence of a 'snake'.

"What the bloody hell happened last night?" she all but hissed to the three Gryffindors.

"We took Norbert to the tower," Hermione whispered, casting a look around. "On the way back Filch found us and took us to Professor McGonagall."

"Last night?!" she all but shouted.

"Meissa," Daphne injected, trying to keep the heiress from ranting at the Gryffindors. "We heard that Neville was caught too - how did he get mixed up in that?"

"He overheard Malfoy talking about busting us and exposing Norbert," Harry answered with a grimace. "McGonagall thought that we were spreading lies to get Malfoy in trouble…"

"And because Longbottom overheard she thinks that you're to blame for him being out of bed as well?" Meissa concluded.

"Poor Neville," Hermione frowned. "He meant well but now he must think the worse of us."

"How did Draco even know about you taking Norbert up to the tower?" Daphne asked. "We didn't even know and we're involved."

"It probably has to do with what happened on Friday," Meissa reminded her friend. "Remember? We thought that he seemed too gleeful."

"Oh," Daphne muttered in remembrance. She had been a bit distracted with fixing up Meissa's hair at the time but she remembered.

"Malfoy took one of my books," Ron grumbled angrily, "It had a letter from Charlie - with the time and place."

The two Slytherins stared dumbly at Ron before looking at the other two Gryffindors. "You left.. a letter with the time and place of a meeting in a bloody book?" Meissa hissed at them. "You knew he had this information and you still went out to send Norbert away?!"

"There was no time to reschedule!" Hermione defended.

"Unbelievable," the Black heiress muttered.

"So do you have detention?" Daphne asked while Meissa was muttering under her breath.

"Yes," Harry and Hermione answered miserably.

"But we don't know what we're doing," Hermione elaborated.

"You're fortunate it's not with me," Meissa grumbled. "The two of you acted recklessly!"

"Meissa," Daphne tried to shush her, avoiding a few terms that she knew would cause her to explode in anger. "I know you're upset but it can't be helped now."

"Next time," Meissa narrows her eyes at the trio, "don't do something this rash without involving Daphne or me." The blonde and redhead protested to this - the action causing both of them to look horrified by their apparent agreement.

"Why do you want to be involved in any rule breaking?" Harry questioned.

"Someone has to keep a collected mind among you boys," Meissa remarked coolly. "Apparently Hermione isn't enough to keep you from doing something foolish."

"Meissa," Hermione frowned at the raven haired girl, thinking that she was being too harsh with her words.

"Why should we trust you?" Harry all but growled.

"Considering that we have been keeping all of your secrets to ourselves, I think Meissa and I have already proven ourselves trustworthy," Daphne injected, narrowing her eyes at the bespectacled boy. "We gain nothing from outing you to the professors."

"Harry," Hermione looked at him, "I trust Meissa and… Daphne has proven herself to me. I don't think they have any hidden agenda. I mean, they've been helping us with this whole mystery with the… you know what."

Harry frowned before he looked at Ron who was obviously against having the two Slytherins join them in any future plans - whatever they may be.

"If we do anything," Harry started slowly, thinking. "We will attempt to contact you…"

"You can do better than that," Meissa narrowed her eyes at him.

"If we have to move quickly then we can't afford to waste time looking for you."

Daphne and Meissa looked at each other, thinking about this. "If we give you a way to contact us almost instantly, would you use it?" the heiress questioned with a slight tilt of her head.

"If we had a way, then yes," Hermione answered for Harry - afraid that he would still turn this down.

Meissa stayed quiet, thinking before she turns and left them, with Daphne quickly following after her to avoid being left with the Gryffindors.

~MJB~

This doesn't mean that I'm back to the twice a month updates but I thought ya'll would like to have an update today. Also I wanted to thank everyone for following the story. I am immensely grateful for every review and follow/favorite I get. And I hope everyone sticks around for the completion of this story.

On that note I want to bring up a poll I'm doing at the moment for this fic. If you go to my profile you should see a poll asking who you think Meissa will become romantically involved with. That does not mean that I'm asking you whom you wish to pair her with but rather whom you think she has good chemistry with.

Anyway, ja ne and have a great summer!