Summary of last chapter:
- Bellatrix tells Voldemort she discovered she is pregnant with his child and manipulates him into giving her permission to raise a child though there are certain restrictions she now has to face in her life and the existence of the child is to be kept secret
- Walburga and Druella Black find out about their own pregnancies
- Arcturus and his son Orion have a conversation regarding Sirius and Regulus where Arcturus stays firm on keeping Sirius as heir despite Orion's opinion
- Sirius and Walburga get into an argument when he returns from Hogwarts, she holds him under the cruciatus before Arcturus enters the room and intervenes
Chapter 4:
19th December 1974, England, St. Mungos hospital:
„How is he doing Ms.?" Arcturus Black asked the healer that had been taking care of his grandson for the last couple of hours. After finding his daughter in law torturing his grandson, Arcturus had panicked and after rendering Walburga (carefully as not to hurt her unborn children) unconscious, had gone to St. Mungos immediately.
„Mrs. Ruslanovich but you can call me Katerina, Lord Black" the healer, Katerina, replied.
„Okay Katerina how is my grandson doing?" he asked Katerina, worried for his grandson's health. There was no joking around when the cruciatus was involved after all.
„He is still unconscious and his body is undergoing regular seizures. Lord Black I have to be honest: These symptoms are remarcably similiar to ones of patients that are suffering from the after effects of a cruciatus. I find myself in a position where I am bound by the law to report this incident to the DMLE." Katerina said.
„You will do no such thing, if I find this information in the hands of the DMLE then I will hold you personally accountable and will do everything in my power to ruin your family, Is. That. Clear?" Arcturus replied icily and with narrowed eyes.
Katerina felt her blood freeze and gulped, if the Lord Black made such a threat he would go through with it without batting an eyelid, everyone knew that. She really had only one option here.
„Perfectly clear, Lord Black but I am afraid I am at a loss then. There is no known cure for an exposure to the cruciatus. What do you want me to do?" she asked nervously.
„Do what you can to stabilise him and get him to wake up. I want an update from you personally every 2 hours understood?" said Arcturus and Katerina had to gulp again.
„Understood Lord Black" she said not meeting his eye. Oh why did she just have to refuse to take the day off?
Later
After threatening the healer to stay quiet, Arcturus had gone back to Black Manor to deal with the problem that Walburga had become. Regulus had luckily been in Diagon Alley with a couple of friends while all of this had been happening but he would soon be back and so this needed to be dealt with quickly. Too long had he allowed his son to deal with Walburga's less... sane aspects of her personality. Too long had they let Walburga free reign in punishing her sons, well mainly Sirius.
Fortunately, Orion agreed. The last amounts of love his son had felt for Walburga died the moment she turned her wand on their son. And so before she could create any more problems Arcturus had imperiused his daughter in law without hesitation.
„Well what do we do now father?" his son asked him, bringing Arcuturus out of his thoughts.
„She cannot be allowed to raise the twins. I have the sinking feeling that it would only lead to disaster." he said and hoping that Orion would let his sense of reason prevail.
„No you're right..." Orion said and Arcturus sent a quick thanks to whatever deity had answered his prayers „... We will have to take her out after she has given birth, don't we?" continued the now grimacing Orion. Arcturus just nodded in response.
„... Well I can't say I like it but it has to be done. Walburga signed her death wish the moment she attacked Sirius" said Orion thinking of how good a whiskey would be right now. One elf call later and both Orion and Arcturus had a firewhiskey bottle inside their hands.
„How will we make this work though father?" Orion asked. „We cannot let any suspicions arise, can we?". Arcturus took a sip from his bottle and said
„No we cannot, it would tarnish house Black's reputation, especially if it came out that Walburga had used a cruciatus on her own son. Alright son this is how we're gonna do it, but before we begin..." and so their plotting of the death of Walburga death began.
31st December 1974, England, Riddle Manor
„You have to push Bella, come on, push a little further. You can do it, I believe in you" said Narcissa holding her sisters hand trying to calm her sister down who had already cursed the last two healers attending her after her water broke.
A few hours later and Narcissa was holding a little girl in her hands.
Looking at her exhausted sister she said „Well congratulations are in order Bella, you are now the mother of a healthy daughter. What will you name her?" she asked.
„... Her name is... Delphini Bella Lestrange" Bellatrix said with a weak voice.
Muttering a quick „tempus" she saw that it was well past midnight already.
Elsewhere, 5 hours earlier
The new year was coming fast and Martin Foucade was exstatic. Their Lord had wanted to celebrate the event by killing a bunch of mudbloods. Martin was originally from France but had been swayed to his Lord's cause in 1971 after he had witnessed a raid on a house owned by the filthy creatures he so despised during a trip to London. Being only 19 years old back then he had then been trained for a long time and was now participating in his first raid.
He was currently making a few potions that would help them should the muggles dare to resist their betters.
Immersed in a daydream he didn't notice a man sneaking into his shop that he had built for pretenses and up to him. He faintly heard a whispered „confundus" before he suddenly got the urge to teach the Blacks, who had so far refused to join his Lord, a lesson. This thought made him angry and think about how he could accomplish this endeavor.
'How to do this? The Blacks are skilled so I would have to attack one that was weakened' he thought to himself before he got an idea.
Walburga Black was heavily pregnant and in currently in St. Mungos, wasn't she? She would make a perfect target since she was the daughter in law to the current Lord Black, that would show him! He hesitated in his thoughts, unknowingly fighting back against the confundus. Walburga Black may not be a threat but surely she had someone to guard her? The urge to kill her became stronger and a voice was whispering 'You don't have to kill her directly, do you? Force one of the mudbloods to kill her' in his head.
He shook his head feeling a bit dizzy.
But the voice was right, he could hit two birds with one stone by imperiusing a mudblood and have them kill her. No, he would imperiuse two mudbloods, don't have all your eggs in one basket and all that as the British liked to say. He would have them fight and injure eachother and then go to St. Mungos pretending to have had a mock fight that spiraled out of control. He would order them to stay there until he (under an invisibility cloak he would borrow from his Lord) gave a codeword that would activate their second mission. Going to the room he gave them and killing everyone inside.
He couldn't wait for reporting back to his Lord. But now... it was time to kill some muggles
later, in the evening
Harry McPhillips was having the day of his life. He had met up with a bunch of fellow muggleborns and a few halfbloods to celebrate the new year together. The last few years had been giving him anxiety and he hoped this whole situation with this Dark Lord would be dealt with soon. He wanted to enjoy his 20s without this craziness that seemed to have enveloped Magical Britain since the start of his 5th year in 1969.
He looked at the girl, Emma Taylor if he remembered correctly, that was a few metres away and had been giving him the eye for some time. Grinning at her he motioned towards the door to the backyard and after seeing her grin and nod in response he left the house. They said nothing as they linked their arms and went to the small forest that was adjacent to the villa they were partying in.
They never saw the man that was imperiusing them two minutes into having their fun.
1st January 1975, England, St. Mungos hospital:
Junior Auror Bobby Rosier, a Death Eater (though noone knew that of course), was currently inside the hospital room with Walburga Black and his fellow auror Senior Auror Lysandra Bulstrode whom he suspected was atleast sympathetic to the cause. Bobby, now 25 years old, had been an auror for the last 3 years and a Death Eater for 6 years. The last 4 ½ years had been glorious. He had been made a full death eater around the time his Lord had revealed himself to the public. He couldn't remember how many muggle houses he had cleaned out with his associates.
Looking at Walburga Black he frowned. The woman that was supposed to be an insane bitch from what he heard had been quite subdued which he found strange. She hadn't even insulted the last healer who he knew was a mudblood. There was something going on here, he didn't know what it was however. He looked at the elderly healer, her tag stated that she was Marietta Flint, who had now her shift and was currently supplying Walburga with a pain relieving potion when her water broke.
Healer Flint was almost immediately joined by two other healers and together they helped Walburga through the birthing process. An hour later and it was done. He glanced at the twin babies that had just been born and didn't envy them. With Walburga Black as a mother they'd most likely have a less than stellar childhood. He then watched the two additional healers that had assisted healer Flint leave and congratulated the new mother and waited for her family to arrive but almost an hour later there was still not one. His suspicions rose but his Lord knew that he would be guarding Walburga Black and his Lord hadn't mentioned any coming attacks on the Blacks. It was probably nothing.
A few minutes later and he was snoozing a little when he heard a commotion outside. Now completely awake he and Bulstrode glanced at eachother before lifting their wands towards the door. Behind the door all he could hear was yelling and he even heard a stupefy being cast. His eyes widened as he heard a killing curse being cast. Then the door opened and a man and a woman, both likely the same age as Bobby, stormed in.
All hell broke loose as they immediately killed healer Flint and sent Walburga Black flying as they hit her with some spell he didn't recognise. He and Bulstrode quickly brought up shields as the two intruders turned to them and began firing spells at them. The duel was a stalemate, these two were skilled, were they hired assassins? He ducked and dodged multiple killing curses and considered using them himself. But no he couldn't as he legally wasn't allowed to use them as an auror and he didn't want to get in trouble with the law as it would destroy any usefullness he had for his Lord and the cause. Glancing at Bulstrode he saw that she found herself in the same dilemma.
They would just have to hold out and wait for help to arrive.
And help it came. Roughly 5 minutes later two aurors he recognised as Senior Auror Alastor Moody (who was becoming quite famous these days) and Junior Auror Kingsley Shacklebolt burst in and began beating the intruders back. As skilled as these two were, they were no match for the 4 aurors and were quickly subdued, stunned and incarcerated. He heard crying and quickly looked at the crib before looking back to the assassins, having made sure that the two newborns were atleast alive.
**End of Chapter**
Characters in the chapter and the amount of chapters they have been in:
- Arcturus Black (3)
- Katerina Ruslanovich (1)
- Orion Black (3)
- Bellatrix Lestrange (2)
- Narcissa Malfoy (1)
- Martin Foucade (1)
- Bobby Rosier (1)
- Walburga Black (2)
- Lysandra Bulstrode (1)
- Marietta Flint (1)
- Harry McPhillips (1)
- Emma Taylor (1)