Hi everyone, this is the last chapter for the first book! If you haven't followed me yet I would suggest doing so cause the Second Year will start in a separate story. I'm glad that ya'll have followed this story for as long as you have and I hope I see ya'll again for the Second Year. Enjoy!

Chapter 36: Summer!

It was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck with a large mustache that looked like a caterpillar from one of Hermione's books. The man looked rather purple faced, it was like someone had spelled him to look such a way. Except, she can distinctly remember that Potter's remaining relatives are muggles.

That particular bit of news meant that it would be illegal for any wizards and witches to use magic upon them without the muggles' express permission or if the continued knowledge of the Wizarding world places all of Magical Britain in danger. The loop hole was meant for the Obliviators to be able to do their job without facing legal/political punishment for wiping the muggles' memories.

Behind the man stood a tall thin woman with blonde hair and an insane amount of neck. Besides her was a boy who was wider than he was tall. There was no resemblance between the two males and Harry and only some resemblance between Harry and the long necked woman. Meissa found herself wondering if someone had stretched out the woman's neck when she was an infant.

It didn't escape Meissa's attention that the woman and boy looked terrified at the very sight of Harry. Although the boy's eyes kept darting around while his hands kept twitching and moving towards his behind until his mother tugged on them. She couldn't quite make out the reasoning for this kind of reaction. She may not know Harry that well but she was fairly confident that he did not deserve this kind of reaction.

"You must be Harry's family!" the Weasley matriarch exclaims, moving to offer a hand that was looked at scornfully and rejected by the heavy set man.

"In a manner of speaking," the man says, gruffly, barely glancing her way. "Hurry up, boy, we haven't got all day." He walked away, leaving Meissa staring at his back. She really did not like him and the snub he gave the Weasley Matriarch…

Harry looked embarrassed at his uncle's actions, smiling apologetically at everyone.

"See you over the summer, then," Harry was saying to Ron and Hermione although Meissa felt that Daphne and her were included with the way his eyes swept over them, his green eyes brighten when he saw them.

"Hope you have - er - a good holiday," Hermione says, looking uncertainly after the heavy set man. Meissa wondered if she was shocked by the sheer unpleasantness of the man.

"Oh, I will," Harry grins at them, surprising Ron and Hermione while amusing the two Slytherin girls. That grin, in Meissa's opinion, was pure Slytherin. "They don't know we're not allowed to use magic at home. I'm going to have a lot of fun with Dudley this summer…"

Meissa shook her head in amusement before she felt someone touch her elbow. She turns and finds her godmother standing there, her eyes looking rather disdainfully at the muggles going about their day. She glanced past her aunt, wondering where her cousin was, but did not see him.

"Meissa, it's time to leave now," her Aunt Narcissa comments airily, the slight upturn of her head telling the raven haired girl that her aunt was in no mood to tolerate the presence of muggles.

"May I say goodbye to my friends?" she requested of her aunt.

Narcissa paused, looking at the youths gathered behind her goddaughter. One had a pale shade of blonde that was similar to her son's, allowed to fall down her back with nary a strand out of place. Blue eyes gazed at her, meeting her own unflinchingly. The feel of the girl's magic was familiar, a faint reminder of her own Hogwarts years - this was a Greengrass.

Shifting her gaze to the other girl, Narcissa took one look at her and new she was not a pureblood. The warm chocolate brown eyes was a giveaway, no pureblood she knows would ever be so expressive, and the thick unruly brown hair was as bad if not worse than her goddaughter's hair when allowed to be free of any bindings. The way the girl dressed told Narcissa that this one was a muggleborn. But her close proximity to her goddaughter told her that she'll be needing to have words with her niece to ensure that images is kept.

But when she returned her gaze to Meissa, Narcissa saw the defiant set in her eyes and jaws. The physical resemblance between mother and daughter was now even stronger than usual. In this instance she knows that trying to persuade the girl from the muggleborn's side could result in more than several objects being destroyed in the girl's immediate vicinity. She was not willing to make any bets on whether those objects would priceless and irreplaceable.

"Make it quick," Narcissa informs her niece. "Your uncle is waiting for us." Meissa looked at her at the mention of her uncle, her eyes questioning as to which who she meant. "Your godfather," the witch elaborates, her voice softening slightly. She had no intention of ever exposing her goddaughter to her husband ever again.

"Okay," the raven haired girl mutters before she turned towards the muggleborn witch and hugged her, shocking the blonde haired witch. That one move told the woman that any attempt to separate the two would result in a painful existence for the offender.

With an internal sigh, Narcissa resolved herself to accepting the muggleborn witch and made a firm note to herself that Lucius is never to find out about this. The resulting events could potentially be too much for her young niece as the Malfoy Lord would do everything to keep the House of Black, and the Malfoy's name by association, from being tarnished.

She did not heed much of the girls' conversations, noting with a pleased smile that her niece seems to care for the Greengrass girl just as much as the muggleborn. She could take some measure of reassurance in this, as shallow as it may seem to anyone else.

Once the three girls were done hugging each other and saying their farewells Narcissa escorted her niece away, pausing only long enough to ensure that the Greengrass witch found her way to her parents. "So… what would you like for your birthday?" she asked her niece. The wide eyed look she got in response told her two things. One: shopping for her niece is really impossible on most occasions. Two: she forgot her own birthday again. Which would mean that her niece doesn't have any special requests.

"Can't we do what we always do?" Meissa asks innocently, unaware that her aunt wishes to spoil her.

"The point of celebrating your birthday is to invite friends," Narcissa comments lightly. Surely the her niece has managed to befriend someone? Other than the two girls.

"Um… I'm not sure 'Mione would be welcomed… and I have plans with Daphne already. I probably shouldn't bother her."

"I'm sure that your friends would love to spend time with you. Do they know when your birthday?"

"Um…. I think I told them?"

Narcissa sighed at that hesitant response. Chances were she never told them when her birthday is. If her niece was likely to forget her own birthday then it was more than likely she 'forgot' to inform her friends as well. "Perhaps you should owl them later, invite your friends to your birthday party."

"I don't know… I mean, we'll be meeting up on July 4th."

"I think your friend would appreciate knowing ahead of time when is your birthday. They may wish to celebrate it - even if not on the day of."

Meissa looks at her aunt for a moment longer for sighing. "Okay." She looks around to try and locate her cousin and his idiotic friends. She was rather surprised she hadn't heard any of his attempts at being sarcastic. "Where's Draco?" she finally asks when she did not spot him anywhere in their immediate vicinity.

"His father has decided that Draco needs a lesson in being the heir of the Malfoy family," Narcissa answers in a clipped tone that indicated just how much she distasted what her husband has planned. Meissa picked up on this and was unsure of what to think. As a Black, Meissa was kept excluded in an events that has to do with the Malfoy customs and could only imagine that her aunt was in the same boat despite being married to the Lord of the Malfoy estates.

"Oh…. What are we going to do today?"

"Mm, we could replace your robes," Narcissa suggests. It was clear to her that her niece has grown a few inches in the time since she began schooling and her return.

"What? Why?" Meissa exclaims, acting exactly how Narcissa thought she would.

"You're at least three inches taller than before," Narcissa comments as she rests a hand on her niece's black hair. Mentally comparing the girl's current height with the height her niece was at when she visited during the Christmas break.

"Really?"

Meissa wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing.

She was already taller than most of the girls in her year, this recent growth would keep her firmly ahead of the other girls in terms of heights. It also explains the aches in her bones that had nothing to do with her recent visits to the hospital wing.

"Yes. I imagine your usual clothes are shorter than they were before," Narcissa comments idly, guiding her niece away from the busy Muggle platform so they could apparate away. She needed to get her niece to the store before the girl could lodge a protest and throw a tantrum.

~MJB~

Meissa whined as she sleepily leaned against her aunt's side, allowing her to guide her from the apparition point and into the manor that she lives in with her godfather. She knows that if he could he would rather stay at Spinner's End - the Nigri Sanctuarium was at least three storied with more rooms than she could count.

According to the portraits that hung around the house it was a recent addition to the Black Estates and that only her parents had lived in it prior to her birth. That she had been born within the safety of the wards during the war. Her godfather had arrived shortly after her birth and had held her awkwardly - according to a really maternal portrait. It was her favorite painting because she hoped that's how her mother would behave towards her.

Not that she ever really shared that bit with anyone.

In any case, she knows that her uncle feels uncomfortable in Nigri Sanctuarium. Spinner's End was a two storied house with three bedrooms, a lab for him to brew potions safely away from her, and a garden out back with all kind of plants. It was a really different from Nigri Sanctuarium since it was more cozy and feels more like a family home.

In Nigri Sanctuarium she feels lonely, even with her godfather working in the potions lab. She and Draco alternated between whose house they would stay in any particular week. But this particular summer would be different from all of the others.

She had a good feeling that her cousin would complain about being left to his own devices - at least until it occurs to him that he can bother his father to allow Crabbe and Goyle to visit. After that she's sure to become an afterthought.

She wasn't sure if she'll allow him to go over to the Nigri Sanctuarium while Hermione is visiting. Unless she had a promise from him that he'd behave and leave his father's point of view behind. That thought had a slim chance of seeing reality, in her opinion, so she decided to cast it out of her mind for the time being.

Instead she followed along at her aunt's promptings, leaning against her while she was unlocking the wards to her private rooms before flopping onto the bed with a noise that made it perfectly clear just how happy she was to be in her own bed once more.

Her aunt, having helped her over to the bed, shakes her head in exasperation at her niece's antics and withdraws her wand. She waves it once over the girl's shoes, casting a spell to undo the laces before she sends them off to the closet to join the other pairs of shoes. She studies her niece for a moment before deeming that it would not be wise to attempt to dress her into bed clothing. Her niece's tired state would mean she would not pay attention to who is changing her and simply lash out.

So she simply covers her niece up with the covers and leaves the room, making sure to shut the door completely behind her.

It would not do to have her niece go through a panic attack just because the door was left ajar.

Once she was sure that her niece was safely tucked away for the night she heads down the stairs, deciding to check the labs to see if Severus has returned from Hogwarts. She needed to discuss a few things with the Potion Master, regarding their goddaughter. Her niece has been scarce with the details of her treatment but she knows that her niece is required to take a certain dose at certain times of the day. A check up on where her niece is in for her regime would be a great start to ensuring that she stays on track.

She descends the stairs to the ground floor, walking through the hall before she reaches the door that will lead down to the potion labs. It's glamoured to look part of the wall, mostly to prevent Meissa from entering the labs unsupervised when she was too young to remember the patterns.

It hasn't quite work since Meissa was six years old, since she snuck into the labs and attempted to brew a potion that ultimately destroyed one of the rooms. The potion she brew reacted violently to something the raven haired girl had added and exploded, coating the entire room with a purple colored slime that caused the ingredients on the shelves to react.

She taps her wand at specific locations on the door before she hears the click of the lock. She considers for a moment about the purpose of the locking spell, wondering if it should be removed, before she decides to worry about it later.

Making sure that Severus was on the property and ready to watch after their goddaughter was a priority. Which meant that she has to check on him, to ensure that he hasn't lost himself in the middle of one of his creative trances. If he is in the middle of one she'll have to ask one of the house elves to keep an eye on Meissa under strict orders to not let her break any of the rules established by herself or Severus. At least until Severus snaps out of his trance - which usually only happens when he completes his current project.

But first, before she gets ahead of herself, she needs to check on Severus.

~MJB~

After a weekend of getting her summer potion homework done Meissa decided she was due for a break. She wasn't quite sure what she wanted to do though. Draco was still spending time with his father - that was the only explanation as he wasn't there with her. It was the first summer in years that they would spend time apart and she found that she didn't like it.

With nothing else to occupy her time she decides to obey her aunt's orders and owled Hermione, Daphne, and - after some consideration - Harry to inform them that she'll be celebrating her twelfth birthday soon. She wasn't particularly happy about how she worded the letters - it sounded arrogant to her to say 'My twelfth birthday is almost here. Contact me if you wish to make a day of it'. But she was at a lost as to how to phrase it so after at least five drafts she gave it up for a lost cause and just sent them off with her godfather's owl, Hermes.

Once that was taken care of she decided to explore the three storied manor, positive that she has not found every little secret yet. There's a room, on the third floor, that she has never been able to open. She remembers asking asked her godfather about it. This expression on his face, it was like he didn't want to consider the memory.

So she never asked about it again. But for as long as she could remember she would go and sit in front of the door, wondering and imagining what could be behind the door. She wanted to know what was so important that it would be locked away.

She had found other rooms that were locked too but they were easy to unlock with the wand she had retrieved from the library, stored away behind a secret door. There were other wands there too, some long and some short, with varying degrees of flexibility, and just about every imaginable combinations of woods and cores to create a wand. In fact she wouldn't have known what wand had which kind of core if it wasn't for the fact that someone had the foresight to label each wand with the name of the original owner, the period of time from which the owner had the wand to the time of death, the length of the wand, flexibility, wand wood and core.

The wand she bonded with prior to getting one from Ollivander was from a witch, supposedly someone who lived during the late fifth century or sixth century.

The feeling she got when she picked up Morgen's wand was just as powerful as the feeling she got when her own wand chose her. It felt like the wand was made for her. It is a yew rigid fourteen inches long wand with a blended core that consisted of a dragon's heartstring and phoenix tail feather. The design of the wand was rather simple, the wood is a light shade of brown that was tinted with white all along the length of it. It has dark markings that looks like runes - except she has never seen anything like them before. She had tried finding a book that would be able to translate what the runes said but she hasn't found anything of the like.

She probably won't mention to her godfather that she got into runes because of Morgen's wand. He knows that she has a wand without the Trace, he was there when her godmother revealed the collection of wands. He hasn't said anything about her using a wand from one of her ancestors since it's tradition within the Black family for those underage to select a compatible wand to use until they've turned 17, the age as determined by the Ministry.

Meissa can remember that moment like it was yesterday.

It was her sixth birthday, she had just spent most of the year living with her godfather at Hogwarts and had only been living at Nigri Sanctuarium for a few weeks when Aunt Cissy arrived at the house without Draco by her side. She had this elaborate gown on, a deep green floor length formal robe bordered with silver, and the most serious expression on her face. The heavy thrum in the air, to the magic sensitive young girl, was almost too much and told her that her sixth birthday was not going to be peaceful.

The first thing her aunt did was take Meissa's hands into her own, her eyes stern as their gaze locked. "Meissa," she said with the gravest tone she has ever heard from her aunt, "Listen to me very carefully." Her aunt looked at her with these eyes that told her that she was very serious and she nodded to show that she was listening. "Good. Today we will continue a long tradition of the family. But you must promise me a few things."

"What is it Aunt Cissy?"

"Today you will receive a wand from our ancestors." The squeeze of her hands kept Meissa from squealing and jumping from glee, the glacial blue eyes pinning her down and reminded her that this was serious. "You must swear to me that you will not use the wand outside the Black estates." She didn't even get the chance to nod when her aunt continued on, "You must swear that you will not use the wand unless you are with your godfather or I. And lastly, you must swear to me that you will not inform anyone outside of the family of the wand. Do you so swear to these terms?"

The magic pressed down on her, strangling any careless promises that would have left her tongue. Meissa felt the urgency in the magic and the look in her aunt's eyes spoke to her. She could feel the little hairs on the back of her neck rise as she stood under the weight of the magic before finally the words came to her.

"I so swear, upon my honor, life, and magic to obey these terms for as long as I am a Black."

The second the words left her the magic was gone, no longer clinging to them. She could breathe again and the look on her aunt's face told her that she answered correctly. "You must be careful," she would remember her saying, "If you break your promise…"

"I'll get hurt," Meissa sums up for her aunt when she saw that she had hesitated.

"Yes," her aunt agreed before she led her to the library, explaining that the repository used to be kept within the Black Manor until Meissa's mother moved them into Nigri Sanctuarium. The look on her aunt's face told her that she was not going to receive any answers if she asked about the reason for the move. When they arrived in the heart of the library Meissa waited for her aunt to open the repository - she never knew that there was a repository in the library. It made her wonder if there were other secrets to be found in her home.

When the hidden door slid open she saw rows upon rows of wands of varying length and colors. Some were twisted upon themselves, some had some kind of elaborate design, some was rather plain looking, and some couldn't be described at all.

Her aunt had to nudge her into motion cause she was struck dumb by the magic she had never sensed before when she sat in the library. What she could feel felt overwhelming. Instead of one whole entity of magic it feels like the magic has been fractured into individual entities - each with its own personality. The closer she got the more she could feel the magic reaching out for her until finally she stood there, just inches away from each wand.

"Hold your hand over each wand," her aunt told her as she stood there. "You should be able to feel out which feels comfortable to you."

She did as she was told, her left hand held out in front of her before she slowly moved from wand to wand. Each one felt off and she would move on, the rejected wand's magic going dormant as she continued her search for one that felt right. Some would wiggle under her hand but the second she would pause the magic would touch her before going back into the wand, going dormant. Those ones she would look at in question before continuing on. She went through so many rows of wands that she was starting to think that she was not meant to have a wand when finally, on an extremely dusty shelf, she found it.

It was propped up on a stand and she could feel the steady beat of its magic, she could feel it align itself to the beat of her heart. A sense of belonging came to her as she stood there, staring until finally she reached her hand out for it. Her hand was mere inches away from the wand when it lifted off the stand and floated to her. A sharp noise behind her was not enough to distract her from the wand that was floating in front of her. The steady and calm beat filling her until she knew nothing else. Only then was she able to reach up and take the wand into her hand. Its magic spreading a sense of warmth through her.

That was the day the wand of Morgen claimed her as its new owner.

Not that she would tell her aunt.

With Morgen's wand in hand she wanted to tackle the wards on the door barred to her. But every time she thought about using the wand without supervision she would get an uneasy feeling along the back of her neck. The feeling always brings up the memory of the vow she made with her aunt. It wasn't the Unbreakable Vow but she made a promise with magic as her witness and she was not quite willing to test what would happen if she broke the promise.

When she was positive that her godfather was too preoccupied with his potion work she snuck away to the third floor. She knew that her godfather would be stuck down in the labs until one of the House Elves call upon him for supper or she gets into some kind of trouble that the elves can't handle on their own.

"Hello dearie," she hears as she was walking up the flight of stairs leading to the third floor. Unbidden a smile appeared on her face at the familiar greeting and she rushed up the last half. Situated across the locked door was a portrait of a woman with black hair as unruly as her own, shining black eyes, and a wicked grin on her ruby lips.

"Hi," she greets, standing in front of the portrait.

She wasn't sure who the woman is but for as long as she could remember this portrait has always been there. The only one on the entire floor - now that she can really say that. The hall she stood in was the only part of the third floor she could access. Everything else was locked behind that door.

"Had a good year?" the woman asks.

"It was okay," she answers. "I made some friends and enemies."

Her words got an immediate cackle from the woman, her eyes dancing with glee. "That's the whole point of Hogwarts!" the woman finally managed to say after a good two minutes of laughing.

"I think my godfather would disagree," she remarks.

"Mm, Severus has always been a bit too uptight," the woman remarks as she shook her head, sending the messy curls flying.

"That's not a nice thing to say about him," she observes.

"I see that you're not disputing it."

"I know that he's not very nice towards other people," Meissa states flatly.

"That's putting it mildly." Meissa arched an eyebrow at the woman, getting the exact look returned. "Fine," the woman rolls her eyes at the girl. "Anyway, dearie, it's almost time for your twelfth birthday, isn't it?"

"It is yes."

"Ready for it?"

"Not in the slightest."

"That's a good response," the woman cackled, briefly disappearing from the frame. Meissa assumed that she had fallen over - it wasn't the first time it has happened. She doubted it'll be the last.

She waited as the sound continued until finally the woman reappeared, the maniac grin on her face even wider than usual. Meissa stopped wondering, at a fairly young age, if she should be worried about that grin. It was just something she had come to accept from the woman.

"I think it's time," the woman remarks, confusing Meissa with the random statement.

"Time for what?"

"For your heritage."

Confused and curious Meissa stared at the woman before she gestured for the girl to turn around. Just as she made the gesture Meissa heard a click.

Not believing her ears she turns around slowly, her hand dropping to the wand strapped to her thigh.

The door, the always locked door, was now ajar.

"How…"

"Go on."

She looks at the portrait, frowning for a moment before she pushed the door all the way open, withdrawing the wand from its holster. The magic that normally pressed down on her every time she considered using it away from her godparents was gone and she realized something.

The magic would not harm her if she used it in self-defense.

Reassured by this she stepped into the room behind the door, curious as to what her heritage was.

At first all she saw was darkness. Bu the second she was fully inside the door closed behind her and the lights all turned on simultaneously, blinding her.

~MJB~

I hope to have the second year going next month. I have yet to hear any suggestions from people regarding the girls' summer so I will assume no one is interested in this.

If you want to see the girls' summer activities let me know within the week and I'll switch up my plans.