Monday August 3rd, 1992

After another day of defence training, Harry and Melly bid Mister Salvatore goodbye and returned to the flat. When they arrived, however, it was to find Grandfather Arcturus pacing through the living room with a thunderous expression on his face. Concerned and unsure of the situation, the two adolescents looked at each other in silent conversation. Melly made a mime, suggesting she dive over to the kitchen, just in case. Harry nodded, then waited until she fled before clearing his throat.

"Grandfather Arcturus, what's going on?"

The man broke his pace, schooling his expression from thunderous to merely upset. "Ah, Harry, you're back."

Harry nodded once, risking a few steps closer. "Are you alright?"

Arcturus scoffed. "I most certainly am not! It seems the Ministry has taken it upon themselves to ransack my home on some pretentious ploy to uncover dark artifacts! Now I am unable to enter my own home until they complete their investigation."

His eyes widened at the announcement. "You don't actually have dark magic in your home, though, do you?"

Arcturus regarded the boy with confusion, only to give him a pitying smile. "Ah, my boy, one cannot be a Black without coming into contact with dark magic." He chuckled with a cunning gleam in his eye. "But, no, I wouldn't be so foolish as to leave such things in my home. Some remain in my vault… though others were meant to remain in Grimmauld Place until SOMEONE chose to dispose of them!" He said loudly and in the direction of the kitchen.

From the kitchen, Sirius' voice popped through. "I'm not sorry, old man!"

"Bah!" Arcturus sneered. "I suppose I cannot be surprised. Be it my impudent grandson or this spineless Ministry, if you take pride in Slytherin values, you are to be plagued with hostile suspicion!"

Hearing the railings from Arcturus, Harry couldn't help but feel sweat fall down his neck. After all, not two days ago an "anonymous" tip was sent to the Ministry about possible death eater activity. That said, there was more than one reason Harry suddenly felt concern. "Grandfather Arcturus… suppose if someone had... something of Slytherin value, would they get in trouble?"

The query confused the slytherin, and rightly so. "That would depend entirely on the object in question."

"Say someone had a book that… belonged to Slytherin?"

His eyes went wide. "That belonged to Salazar Slytherin?"

"WHAT?" Sirius' head popped through the door. Melly trailed behind him. Out of view of both adults, she mimed at Harry with a look that asked What are you doing?!

Arcturus looked to him in earnest. "May I see it?"

Harry looked at Sirius and Melly for a brief moment, Melly rolling her eyes to the sky while Uncle Sirius, too, seemed earnest to see the book. "One minute." He went over to his room and retrieved the open book from a box under his bed. When he returned, all three of them were sitting in the living area waiting for him. He delivered the box to Arcturus and turned the pages to the beginning. Reading the title, Arcturus traced his fingers over the parseltongue and old English words with reverence.

"Incredible." The man murmured. He lifted it carefully from the box to admire the spine and cover.

"No wait!"

*SNAP!*

Both children groaned in unison as the book shut closed. When the adults asked what the matter was, Harry simply shrugged it off. "It's fine, I'll open it again."

"No, Harry," Melly interrupted, "it's fine, I'll do it."

"You did it last time." Harry argued. "It's my fault for bringing it up, anyways." He slipped the ring onto his thumb. Then, retrieving the book from Arcturus, placed the ring into the lock, trying hard not to wince as it took the required blood sacrifice to open it.

"Harry!" Sirius jumped in alarm upon seeing the blood.

"It's alright. It always does this." Harry assured the older men. Sirius, though, was having none of it. After giving the ring to Arcturus, Harry allowed Sirius to do some minor healing magic on his thumb. Grateful for the assistance, Harry gave a relieved sigh from the pain.

While this went on, Arcturus carefully inspected the ring. His eyes widened in shock as he read the runes. "Harry… this ring is charmed as a blood-bound key!"

Harry blinked. "It does need blood to open the book, of course."

"No, no." The man shook his head. "The charm is blood-bound. Only someone with a direct line to Salazar himself can use this ring!"

"What? That can't be right." Harry shook his head. "Melly opened it before I did, and she's a muggleborn."

The three wizards turned lightning fast to the witch. The witch, however, seemed only mildly confused with the information.

"That's not possible!" Arcturus exclaimed.

Melly, though, seemed to think otherwise. "It's not too surprising. I mean… we're all related to Charlemagne, right?"

"What on earth are you going on about, girl?"

Melly seemed to struggle to find the right words. "Well, two of Salazar's children survived to adulthood and had their own kids, right? If those two had two kids of their own, and their grandkids had kids of their own, eventually they would have a whole bunch of descendants."

"Like the doubled-penny riddle!" Harry exclaimed excitedly.

Melly smiled at the comparison. "Yeah, it's just like that."

Sirius, though, looked confused. "I'm sorry, what are you two going on about?"

"It's a puzzle." Harry explained. "Say I'm offering you two options. For 30 days I can give you either one galleon each day, or give you one knut the first day, double it the second day, and double it again until you reach 30 days, which would you pick?"

"The galleon, obviously." Sirius answered. "There are 493 knuts in a galleon."

"Yes, but you would make over a galleon in knuts by day 9. On day 10 you would get another galleon's worth, and double that for the next twenty days." Harry explained. "So by day 30 you would end up with over a million galleons!"

Both adults seemed surprised by the statement. Arcturus soon realized the full analogy for what it meant. "So, after 30 generations, Salazar Slytherin could very well have over five million descendants?" Though he fixed Melly with a frown. "That would not account for you, though."

In a perturbing way, Melly offered Arcturus a twitch of a smile and an answer that almost sounded foreboding. "All it takes is one squib to enter the equation, and you know how finicky a pureblood's family tree can be."

"So wait…" Sirius interjected. "If that's true, doesn't that mean that everyone could be a descendant of Slytherin?"

"And Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, and any person from that time -Hence, Charlemagne. As long as their children had children of their own, it's practically a guarantee."

"Wait, you didn't mention Ravenclaw?" Harry remarked.

"Her daughter died young. Doesn't count."

Arcturus waved his hand, overwhelmed by the theory. "This is unbelievable. You expect me to believe that there are millions of descendants, millions of muggle descendants of Salazar Slytherin?"

Melly gestured with a middling shrug. "I mean, it's a possibility. How else do you end up with a halfblood parselmouth?"

Slowly, the adults turned questioningly to Harry. Sirius looked torn, confused. "Harry…?"

Harry, on the other hand, raised his hands in surrender. "In all fairness, You-Know-Who was a halfblood, too; so, really, she makes a good point."

"Wait, what?"

"Preposterous!" Arcturus scoffed. "The Dark Lord, a halfblood?!"

"Well his father was a muggle, right? And his mother was a squib. So, even then, he was practically muggleborn; but he still managed to inherit parseltongue anyways. He must have gotten it from both sides of the family for it to show up, right?"

Sirius's jaw fell open. His grandfather, meanwhile, closed his eyes as his head was held by his fist. Finally he looked back at Harry. "How can you possibly know this? No one knows the Dark Lord's lineage. Otherwise the man would never have attained the followers that he had!"

Harry blinked, his eyes moved over to where Melly sat. She was hunched, grimacing with a look of guilt. Ugh, Melly, not again!

"That's not technically true." Melly piped up, the flicker of Harry's accusatory eyes pushing her to speak. "Dumbledore taught him when he was a student. He was the professor that had to tell him he was magical when he got his Hogwarts letter."

The adults slumped into their seats. The implications of these revelations were… daunting. "My children pledged allegiance to that man." Arcturus muttered, his voice sounding every year of his age. "Their children fought for him, died for him, are in Azkaban for him ...and he was a charlatan, fooling us all." His eyes shut, anger and disgust swelling inside of him. "The House of Black all but gone, all on a lie!"

"Killing people who were born like him." Sirius added quietly. The remark was not quite antagonistic towards his grandfather, but it was not quite sympathetic, either.

"The truth can be a terrible thing." Melly commented. "Some people would rather destroy it than embrace it."

Across the table, Harry raised his brows at her, miming an impressed gesture her way. That was weirdly profound.

Melly wobbled her head, with a face that looked both playful and smug. Hey, I can be wise when I want to be. She then smirked, pointing at the ring. Gesturing to the ring as a fixed point in the air, her index fingers mimicked the branching of a family tree. One branch grew exaggerated, pointing in Harry's direction, then another grew over to her. The indexes and thumbs then touched in a circle, and the two circles linked. Guess that means you and I are related! She grinned impishly over the linked circles.

Harry immediately covered his face to stem an urge to laugh. Still, he couldn't help but bob his head a few times at the idea. Oh god, you're right!

After a further exchange on parselmouths, Dark Lords, and bloodlines, Harry was reluctant to say his goodbyes to Melly. It felt awkward to be left with the still-reeling adults, but the hour was getting late so the departure couldn't be helped. When Harry returned to the room, he found Arcturus still in his seat, while Sirius had gone off somewhere, probably to his room.

"I can get the guestroom set up, if you'd like?" Harry offered.

"That won't be necessary." Arcturus dismissed. "The Ministry will no doubt be finished with their "investigation" soon, so I'd best depart. Hopefully to rest, unaccosted." He raised himself from the seat.

"Let me walk you to the floo." Harry offered, doing his best to play host.

They walked down to the lobby in relative silence. After signing out at the clerk's desk, Arcturus made his way over to the floo. His hand hovered over the floo powder container. It seemed to flex, unsure of what action to take. A decision made, Arcturus turned back to Harry. "This night has been a… ponderous experience." Harry nodded, but said nothing in reply. "I find it curious. If these revelations are true, to even entertain the thought… The Dark Lord was a powerful wizard. Powerful enough that the whole nation feared him. All but Albus Dumbledore, of course. …Then again…" His lips thinned into a hard line. He seemed to look at Harry in a new light. "Magical as they are, the Dumbledores are generally regarded by society as halfbloods. Did you know that?" Harry shook his head. "It's curious. Toujours pur has molded the power of the Black family for centuries. Yet now…" He shook his head, as if to banish the thoughts. "Pay no mind to an elder's musings. Give my farewell to Sirius, should by chance he care to hear them."

His face quirked into a smile. "I will. Have a good night, Grandfather Arcturus, and good luck."

"My thanks, Harry. Good night." With a farewell nod, Arcturus took the floo powder and whisked away to his own home. Harry, meanwhile, retreated upstairs to his own room, with Salazar's book in tow for a night of light reading.