Chapter 5- Revelations
The silence after the Witch Queen's statement stretched uncomfortably long. What was Sirius supposed to say?
"Uh, okay grandma! Nice to meet you! Sorry my ancestor killed your family and raped your granddaughter? Also, I thought the Fae were myths? How are you real?", Sirius was honestly lost for words for the first time in his life.
No witty quip, no sarcastic remark, no lewd comment.
The goddess stared down at him, far too many teeth revealed in her grin for it to be human. As the silence stretched to a quite uncomfortable length, she spun around and began walking out of the shadowed glade of trees. Her hips swaying hypnotic— bad Sirius!
"Come little star, this is no place to reconnect with family. I have not entertained guests In millennia, but let it not be said that the hospitality of Dún Scáith has ever been found wanting", the Arch-Fae gestured for Sirius to follow her.
Sirius slowly stood, quickly rearranged his pants, and hesitantly began to follow. He was in her place of power if the legends were true. "Fuck. I must be mad", Sirius thought with a scowl, but steadfastly strode towards the dark forest.
He paused at the edge of the clearing feeling as if he had forgotten something. The blood drained out of his face, "Shite". Sirius quickly ran back to the crater he had just previously been lying in and began scrambling in the dim light.
"Oh no no no… fuck", Sirius' hand bumped into the remains of his wand. He picked the two pieces up, eyes beginning to water. This wand had given him hope and strength in the darkest periods of his life. Now it was no more.
Sirius remembered the day he first received it from Olivanders. It was as cold as a hag's tits in a brass bra. Absolutely fridged. He had begged after his birthday to get his wand early to practice with it before Hogwarts. For once his Mother was fine with the idea, 'a Black does anything to get ahead of the rabble'.
His father Orion had taken him to Diagon Alley rather than his mother, 'I will not sully myself by mingling with the mud bloods and those beneath our station!'. It was soon to be Yule and the Alley was full of shoppers looking for gifts. Though the crowd parted like the Red Sea when Sirius and Orion arrived.
The father and son pair wore robes and winter coats probably worth more than many of the shops. This paired with the fearsome reputation of the Blacks…
At the time Sirius paid it no mind, he thought it natural as his parents had always told him it was his due as a Black. Yet looking back it irked him that his ego and arrogance had been stoked by all. Both were already far too large for a child his age to have.
The sign above the truly nondescript shop, compared to the rest of the fanciful storefronts of the Alley, read: Ollivanders - Makers of fine wands since 382 B.C. He tried to peer into the interior from the outside window but was quickly grabbed by the shoulder and glared at in warning by his father.
Sirius rolled his eyes at the hissed, "Behave yourself, you are a Black!". Orion then pushed open the door and ushered his son in out of the Winter chill. Sirius remembered he managed to hide his eye roll from his father's disappointed gaze.
The interior was warm but dim. The walls all stocked floor to ceiling with long thin boxes. This was an old place, the wood floors worn by millions of Wizards over the years getting their magical foci.
"Ave, filli umbrae", a wizened voice broke the silence of the shop. Sirius started as he now noticed a thin wiry man bowing in greeting just to his left. His platinum blond hair wild and turning to silver, his silvery eyes so intense they seemed to almost bulge out of his face. His slight grin looked unhinged,v nearly salivating. His father seemed unfazed, his steady presence reassuring in the situation.
"Ave, Dominus Faber Magicum", Orion bowed back. Sirius' jaw nearly hit the floor, for never had he seen his father bow to anyone aside from Grandfather before. The two men straightened and then shook hands.
"It's good to see the heir of Black finally grace my shop, I've been waiting expectantly. I have a good feeling he will be a tricky customer", the Wand Smith looked down at Sirius like a kneazle eyeing a particularly fat mouse. Sirius could almost spot his father stiffen at the slight, for he was the heir Black, not his son. Sirius nearly laughed at the eye roll his father managed to hide from the wand smith, Sirius really was his son, he did the same thing!
"Perhaps Master Olivander, it is far more likely he will take after all the Blacks before him. Yew, Ebony, Walnut, or Oak with a Dragon Heartstring core", his father said dismissively as he scanned a rack of wand holsters for something appropriate for his son's station (Black rule no. 22).
"Oh, not all… Only the truly exceptional ones break the mold… Arcturus was the same", Garrick said lowly to himself as he stared deeply at Sirius. Sirius managed to catch the murmurs but his father appeared to have dismissed it as mad ramblings of the truly eccentric man. Olivander made him very uncomfortable.
"Camilia! Come, watch, listen! I think finding a wand for this young man will be a particular treat", Ollivander yelled up the stairs hidden behind a shelf of wands. Garrick then began pulling a multitude of boxes off of his shelves. With each one he carefully, almost reverently opened the box and looked at the wand. Some he would shake his head and return to their resting place, some he would nod thoughtfully and place on his store counter.
Sirius' attention was taken off the eccentric wand smith by the sound of creaking stairs. Two sets of mercurial eyes peeked around a shelf. She was small, probably around Regulus in age. Yet her gaze was the same as her father's, the strange manic gleam of an avant-garde artist. Her hair was so blonde it was seemingly white, which made the fact that it was covered in sawdust and wood shavings doubly apparent.
The small waif of a girl's eyes widened at the sight of Sirius and she stalked up to the older boy. She seemed to be wearing working clothes as she was covered in splotches of stain and more sawdust. She walked about the older boy seemingly trying to learn everything about him in only a few seconds.
"It will be a canid core father", Camilia said over her shoulder. Sirius nervously looked back at his father who was still disinterestedly perusing through the wand holsters.
"Good eye, daughter mine. A son of the shadow named after the Dog Star itself could have no other", Garrick pulled out a darkly stained wand covered in intricate rune work and held it before Sirius with a small grin, "Try this one. A Downy Oak wand of 16 inches, the wood given to me on my first trip to our homeland by a particularly ancient specimen. Cerberus fang core, unyielding to the extreme, and well… it's sharp enough to draw blood. The wand of a… lets say guardian".
The wand was indeed sharpened to an ivory point. Now that he looked closer, the latin runes revealed the core within, the contrast black stained yew on ivory was startling. Sirius hesitantly reached out and grasped the handle. He felt uneasy and looked back to the Ollivanders who stood there in rapt attention.
"Well, give it a wave", Garrick said and gestured off to the side.
Sirius gave a gentle swish.
The store shook as the entire front of the store blew out onto the street scattering nearby shoppers. Garrick quickly retrieved the wand as his eyes impossibly widened more, "No! No indeed not! I thought a canine creature of shadow from Rome was a sure match… Hmm… Tricky indeed. Camilia, give him the next wand while I fix the storefront. Try something… less on the nose".
The wandsmith quickly spelled the shattered remains of his storefront back together as Orion continued to browse the wand holsters. His father appeared completely unbothered by the chaos, let alone the dust and wood splinters he was currently covered in. Sirius would have laughed if it wasn't so out of character.
"Um… Father?", Sirius asked hesitantly, wondering how his father didn't even react to the recent explosion. Now that he was looking, the shoppers of the Alley seemed equally disinterested in the destroyed storefront. It was utterly strange.
"He can't hear you", Sirius jerked back around and looked down at the small Ollivander holding out a grayish wand. It was thin, bone-like and appeared weathered, as if it were the remains of a skeleton left in the desert for far too long. "Stone Pine, 11 inches, Hellhound spine, Whippy!", she said excitedly. The small waif of a girl was almost bouncing in anticipation.
"What do you mean my father can't hear me?", Sirius asked as he gently grabbed the wand. He held it like it was alchemical fire about to go off, because… Well, it felt like alchemical fire about to go off.
"Compulsion and Confundus arrays built into the store and activated only under special circumstances. After all, the pairing of a wand and Magus is sacred", Camilia said solemnly as if that explained why they used very powerful and illegal rune schemes on their own customers. These were similar to those used by the owner of the Leaky Cauldron Tom, to keep out muggles, but obviously far more powerful. She gave a nod towards an empty space, urging him to try again.
Sirius grimaced and squinted his eyes, somehow knowing this would go terribly.
The sound of the swishing wand was soon drowned out by the massive gout of flame that erupted from the wand. Ollivander's shout and quick disarmament of Sirius quickly stopped the stream of fire. Sirius was amazed that nothing in the store was burned to ash. Including his father, who was still looking at wand holsters.
He looked inquisitively between the two Ollivanders. Garrick was shaking his head with a wry grin as he looked at his daughter and placed the wand back in its box. Camilia was unabashedly clapping and laughing as if she was at her favorite show.
"Knowing the flame-freezing charm is a must in this line of work for this very reason, keep that in mind when you learn it at Hogwarts young lady", Garrick said to his daughter who nodded seriously at him. The wand smith placed the box back on his shelves and turned back to Sirius, Silver eyes alight.
"A tricky customer indeed. Just like your grandfather. I may have to make a custom order… Well lets try the next one, hopefully we can narrow the field", He opened another box and produced a slender looking wand, "Yew grown here on the isles at the site of the Battle of Hastings itself, 13 inches with a Laelap bone core, some give but retains its form excellently, the wand of a hunter".
Sirius scowled at the reminder of one of his family's many betrayals throughout history, especially because he had been given the history lesson about the battle just the day before. It was fresh in his head and unlike his family he did not revel in backstabbing to get ahead. The battle of Hastings would have been won by the defending Harald Godwinson and his court mage Antioch Peverell, just as they had recently demolished the invading forces of Harald Hardrada..
Alas, William the conqueror agreed to elevating the Blaec Clan to Dukedom and giving much of the wealth held by the Peverell Clan as spoils of war to the Clan Blaec. Thus fell the Clan Peverell, the last of the Great Clans of the Isles from before the Roman Invasion.
Antioch was slain before the battle and left no heirs, his "unbeatable wand" stolen by the cut throat hired by the Blaecs who then proceeded to cut a bloody swath across the continent as the best assassin of the age. Cadmus, the second son of the mainline, perished by suicide soon after his elder brother's murder. Cadmus' only daughter sought clemency with the Gaunt Clan to hide from the Blaec's massacre of the rest of the Clan. The last son of the Peverell mainline, Ignotus, disappeared completely. He was rumored to be slain in one of the many battles throughout the Norman invasion but it was never confirmed.
Sirius grimaced as the wand was pressed into his hand and he gently grasped it despite his distaste. It felt like a sturdy weapon as it settled in his hand, one made for bloodshed. The reminded him of some of the more storied swords within the family armory. It felt more comfortable in his hand than the other two but still off in some way. He disliked that it felt like a blade to be wielded in the dark, not a sword to be carried openly in the light.
Sirius flicked the wand. A barrage of arrows were conjured and launched at the far wall covered in more wand boxes. A hurried shout and runes lit up along the top and bottom of the shelves, a blue wall of light appearing before the conjured barrage stopped the projectiles before they could do any harm to the merchandise.
"Now remember, the runes protecting the shelves only work for physical projectiles and not elemental spells such as the previous fire. It also gives quite a nasty suprise to any thief looking to physically take a wand", Olivander lectured to his daughter who nodded seriously in response. Camilla's serious face was adorable and almost made Sirius snort at her cuteness.
So Sirius continued to wave wands about constantly having them snatched away after a short wave and dangerous magical effect. A pile of boxes began to form of the wands he had already tried. It was quite disheartening. Twenty wands later Ollivander was near cackling as was his daughter.
"Well, heir Black, you are quite the tricky customer! Not even your grandfather was this difficult to place, though his regal Caladrius feather and Oak wand was also quite unique… hmmm what am I missing? A son of Rome usually pairs so well with a focus made from the motherland…", Olivander spoke almost to himself as he rubbed his hands together in glee along with his daughter who was equally enjoying the wand matching. The Olivanders apparently loved a good puzzle.
Sirius stood awkwardly as Garrick paced back and forth in his shop as his daughter sat up on the counter swinging her legs back and forth chin on her hand as she scowled in concentration. "Papa… he is a son of Rome as are we, but don't we all have two parents?", Camilia asked her father hesitantly, her child-like question silenced the Master Wand Smith's manic pacing.
"Of course… We may be descended from the Romans of old but our ancestors followed the dictates of the Emperor and legion. Marry into the magical blood of the land, adopt and marry what ironl and wand cannot destroy…", Garrick mumbled to himself and then proudly turned to his daughter with a huge smile.
"My daughter is a genius!", the Olivander patriarch said happily as he picked up his child and spun her around joyfully. The girl's giggles and high pitched squeal of delight told Sirius that the kid enjoyed the experience. Olivander eventually
"If that is indeed the case I think you should try this wand. It's an old one, crafted by an ancestor. Hawthorn grown in the Black Forest itself with a quite peculiar core… we have no other of its make. Grim hair", Ollivander said as he brought out a pitch black wand. It was beautiful, silver glyphs seemed to dance ephemeral across its body.
When Sirius gingerly picked up the wand from it's box, a cold feeling resonated deeply within him. He felt as if he had passed into the shade after a long day in the sun. His body felt rejuvenated by the spreading whelming magics, Sirius smiled at the feeling of rightness. He gave a swish of the wand.
The shower of sparks from the tip of the wand was the most beautiful of light shows. The deep navy blue of twilight mixed with silver starbursts and royal purple hues to create a gorgeous burst of light and splendor. Sirius couldn't stop grinning for the rest of the day.
Now his wand was destroyed. The one good gift he had ever received from his parents, something that had never let him down. Sirius wanted to cry… Again!
"Apologies for destroying your wand", Sirius nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt the goddess gently put a hand on his shoulder in an attempt at comforting him. Her hold on his shoulder was firm, almost possessive. Sirius nearly shivered in discomfort, but managed to not flinch.
Sirius could only nod in response. He gently placed the two pieces of his wand in his wand holster. He felt naked and vulnerable without it. Sirius was in a dangerous place and now was near powerless without his focus.
"Have no worries little star, you are under my protection. Nothing in my realm can harm you if I do not will it", Sgáthatch said with a sultry smile over her shoulder as she once again began walking out of the grove. Sirius was quick to follow her, being sure to not stray too far. The darkness of the forest almost seemed to grasp at him as he passed. Creepy as hell.
"It's a shame magic practitioners are so confined by their focus these days. Take away the wand and wizards are absolutely useless", the goddess said conversationally.
"Windless magic requires too much magical control, magical power, and an iron will. All things that come with age. By the time most people are powerful enough to even try they are too old too… wait a second, how do you know that magicals require a wand for magic, you've been trapped here unless you've been having me on?", Sirius' retort died with his question. The goddess snorted with a malicious grin.
"I have been watching Little star. Though imprisoned in my own realm, by my own forever be damned family, they could not keep me from watching the material plane", the Arch-Fae explained patiently. She turned to look directly at him with a mischievous glint in her eye.
"Uhhh…", Sirius replied eloquently, quite unnerved. Just what all had this Arch-Fae been watching? He desperately hoped she was not privy to his many escapades. Sirius was glad Minnie was soft on him, if everything he had done at Hogwarts was reported to his parents he might not be alive at the moment. Quite the sobering thought.
"I'm both ecstatic and quite vexed with you grandson. You remind me so much of my family! Too much! You're just like my idiot son in law Cúchulainn, sticking your dick in anything that has even a bit of warmth. For shame!", she wagged her finger as if lecturing a small child, shit eating grin on her face. Sirius had never felt quite so embarrassed before, even James transfiguring his chest to breasts for the day hadn't been as bad. He swallowed and licked his lips.
"W-what all did you see?", Sirius asked in growing horror, expecting the worst. The ancient Fae rolled her eyes, "Nothing this Witch hasn't seen before young man. Us Fae have quite liberal views on sexuality, but transfiguring your pillow into a dog? For shame! I shake my head, wolves are far more wild to bed anyways". Sirius could only imagine his face was completely crimson.
'Ah. Well then. I mean that was definitely a low in my life… But as an animagus, can she really blame me when my inner animal is literally a dog? All the rest? That's… Hot. Maybe? I mean, I've certainly never been shy before, and the Witch Queen is quite beautiful… Maybe I'm more a Black than I thought, would it even be incest with this many generations between us?', Sirius spiraled into his own hormone besieged mind puzzling out how he felt about the discovered voyeur. Who he was descended from…
"I see the best and worst of the material plane. Everything that shadows touch", the Queen continued more seriously. Her stern voice shocking Sirius out of his horny musings. Damn Padfoot to the deepest of the hells. She approached the young man and gently pushed the collar of his shirt to the side revealing the fresh wounds on his chest. His mothers words still seeping blood into his shirt.
Blood Traitor. Sirius looked down ashamed.
The Queen grabbed his chin forcing him to look into her eyes, the red rubies of power swirling with a maelstrom of emotion.
"Do not be ashamed of your scars, little star. They prove you have conquered trials that would have broken many others. Your mother spews poison from her mouth. You are not what she says you are, you are more", the Mother of old said to her descendant. Sirius couldn't stop the tears and choked sob. Though he did manage to nod as he furiously wiped his eyes. The Queen smiled kindly and trailed the edge of his wound with her finger, shadowy magic flowing over the wound as it dragged across his skin.
"Your blood is that of traitors anyways. You're merely living up to the family name", the queen added with a vicious cruelty even as she healed his cursed wound.
"Damn, straight to the psyche. I thought you were healing me", Sirius whined.
Sirius could feel her power wash away the lingering dark magic remaining in the gashes in his skin. He nearly groaned in relief only now realizing how truly painful it had been. The wound was now a ghastly purple but it was healed. One more example of the Witch Queen's power, usually cursed wounds could not be healed. They had to be cut out and then the entire area regrown. She gave Sirius another smile and gestured forward for their trek to continue.
"I know of hatred between family members, my father especially, though my Fae cousins and adopted siblings are also quite irksome. You can not choose your family, sometimes it is best for you to cut them from your life", the Queen continued as strolled through the gloomy forest. Sirius could definitely agree with that as he planned to soon leave his family and never return before he was pulled into the runic gate.
"That being said, not all your family is evil", Sirius nearly choked on his spit. The fuck!?!
"Not all of my family is evil!?! Sure my mother is the worst of the bunch, but my father has never said anything against the bint, my brother does everything he can to please her. The branch family is nearly as bad as she is! Andromeda is the only one who's not a bigoted and raving mad pure-blood supremacist willing to crush any they see as lesser!", Sirius raged, nearly spitting in his own fury. The feeling of loss and sadness from his family banishment had turned to a roiling inferno of anger.
"Oh, I guess you got the Fae mercurial temper too, we'll have to work on that", the Queen's blasé reply stopped Sirius short.
"What? Did you think what your family and the Wizarding world calls "the Black Madness" is because of all the incest?", the Queen raised an elegant eyebrow. Sirius nodded hesitantly.
"Probably part of it, but certainly not all of it. What do you know of the Fae Sirius? Most on the Material Plane see us as nothing more than myth and Legend thanks to the Roman's purge and the Court's masterful disappearing act", the Witch Queen asked. The young man replied after a few seconds of thought and a quick dodge of yet another grasping shadow.
"I really don't know much. Stories really, my mother would use them to frighten my Brother and I into behaving. Can Fae really steal a name? And Iron?", Sirius inquired.
"Yes. Never tell a Fae, or a Devil for that matter, your true full name or even part of it, an Arch Fae who knows your name owns you. Your identity, your body, your magic, your soul", the dark goddess warned. Sirius gulped.
"Though you should have no fear of that, as you are already mine, no other can claim you", the Queen purred possessively and gave him the hottest bedroom eyes he had ever seen, Sirius shuddered at the seductive tone.
"Not that I have stolen your name or own your soul. You are descended from me and thus are a part of the Shadows", she continued as if she hadn't just been eye fucking her descendent, "and yes, pure Iron is toxic to the Fae. How do you think the Romans won their war?".
Beholding the Queen's capricious manner, Sirius was beginning to realize where the "Black madness" came from.
"Good to know…", Sirius replied as he tried to puzzle through all the new information. He was a smart young man, but his worldview had been shattered several times that day already and it was taking a toll.
"Anyways, the Fae. We are creatures of pure emotion and magic tied deeply to the elements and seasons. Everything that we feel is more extreme. When we are happy, we sing and dance in exuberance because if we do not we may explode from the excess! Our magic feels this and matches with blue skies and sunshine. When we are sad nothing in the world can break our melancholy, rain pours as the world weeps with us. When we love it is possessive, uncompromising and would be considered quite unhealthy to the eyes of humanity the Fae are alien to you humans. Our hate is just as bad and don't even get me started on lust. The Black family has a part of this Fae psychology and magics. Your Bellatrix's cruelty and capricious nature is one example. Your mother's obsession and hatred is another", the Queen explained as the trees began to thin.
"You think that I have this… Faeness in me as well?", Sirius inquired speeding up his steps in order to leave the creepy trees as quickly as possible.
"Sirius, you are an emotional whirlwind, ever changing, honestly a raging hormonal mess. You laugh, pull pranks, and cause mischief to cause smiles and tears. One second you snarl while drawing your wand on your favorite victim, the next you laugh with your friends at old memories and soon are getting into someone's skirt. You push away your family but latch onto your friends all while drowning in sexual conquests never the same one twice in a row", the Queen's seemingly unbiased review of his mercurial emotional state was damning.
'Was he really that bad?', He had never really looked at himself and his actions before, Sirius had been too busy…
The quiet bout of reflection was only interrupted by the thinning of the trees as castle walls rose up in the distance. "Welcome to Dún Scáith grandson", the Queen said as the great keep came into view. It wasn't quite like first seeing Hogwarts above the lake, but it was close in splendor.
The castle was elegant in form, as it rose over the surrounding isle like the crown jewel of the land. It's spires and obsidian walls seemed to glow with their own aura borealis of weir light in the dark sky. The curtain walls stood tall and foreboding, they were completely smooth offering no climbing holds to any would-be attacker or thief. The crenelations and many arrow-slits allowed for quite the defensive position especially now that he noticed the fortress was backed by a cliff halving the needed defensive area.
Dún Scáith was imposing as it was beautiful, a true merging of form and function. He could only imagine the power of the wards that defended the castle unseen. The Witch Queen watched her descendant's awe with a small smile of pride and then resumed her trek towards the front gates knowing Sirius would soon follow.
"Come little star, welcome home".
Hello again! I hope you don't mind the slight info dump on Fae and giving some reasons for why Sirius Black is such an unstable flighty character. I loved him in the HP books, but as an adult I now realize how terribly unstable the man was, even as a child marauder. Sure Azkaban made the man far worse, but even in his Hogwarts days he's often depicted as a pseudo Tony Stark, a very smart guy who is too busy getting laid to try in school. I wanted to give a reason for his madness? Idk tell me how you feel about it.
Me detailing Sirius's wand. I feel that to a young man who hates his family, the single good gift he received from them would still matter, especially something so personal as a magical foci. Though I apologize if it felt like a filler episode, it kinda popped into my head and I had to write the scene out.
Also, I apologize but I am shipping out to Boot Camp next Monday for 10 weeks. I don't think I'll have a lot of time to write for a bit. I may have rushed this chapter wanting to get it out before I left. Eh, that's writing though, sometimes it just needs to be good enough.
Cheers, until next time.
Ave, filli umbrae- hail, sons of the shadow
Ave, Dominus Faber Magicum- hail, master wand smith