Back at headquarters Freddie was disappointed to find that Tonks wasn't waiting for her in the hallway. She checked in the kitchen and found only Molly Weasley, cleaning up the half-eaten plates of food and goblets from the table.
"Are you looking for Tonks dear?" Mrs Weasley asked her. "She went off with Moody to find his invisibility cloak. She should be back soon."
"Oh, okay. Thanks...Is it alright if I look around the house a bit?" she asked uncertainly. She'd had the same eerie feeling of deja vu when she'd walked into 12 Grimmauld Place for a second time.
"Of course, dear. I don't think Sirius would mind. He's been holed up in his room moping ever since the meeting ended anyway. Just be careful – there are all sorts of creatures lurking around this old place."
"I will be. Thanks."
Freddie made her way back to the stairs, tiptoeing past the curtain-covered portrait, and back up to the first floor where she'd been cleaning earlier. She wanted to explore the other rooms there and try to figure out what it was about this place that felt so familiar to her. Part of her worried she might encounter the boggart again, but she knew if she did she would be prepared. She wouldn't let a silly old boggart catch her off guard again.
The first door she opened contained another bedroom, much like the one she'd seen earlier only this one was even dirtier than the first. Clearly Mrs Weasley hadn't made it to this room yet. The only thing that stood out to her was an empty picture frame hanging on the wall.
Strange, she thought to herself, but nothing about this room felt familiar. She closed the door again and continued on her way.
At the end of the hall was another door with a silver serpent doorknob and this one was already open a crack. She pushed it open cautiously, her hand on her wand in her pocket, and stepped inside to what she found was a large drawing room.
It was clear that the room had once been exquisite. Large windows along one wall overlooked the street at the front of the house. An enormous fireplace was against another wall, flanked by two ornate glass-fronted cabinets. But the room was in desperate need of a cleaning – the moth-eaten curtains buzzed with what she quickly determined were doxies and the glass on the windows and the cabinets were so thick with grime you couldn't see through it. But what gave Freddie pause was the final wall which was comprised entirely of a magnificent tapestry – and she knew without a doubt that she had seen this before. A long-forgotten memory swam to the surface of her mind.
"What is it, Mommy?" asked a small Freddie, no more than 5 years old. She was holding her mother's hand as the two stood marveling at the tapestry on the wall. There were hundreds of small pictures of people, linked together by a golden thread that seemed to glow in the firelight. Beneath each picture were names and dates. She was too young to recognize any of the names, but the dates at the top of the tree were hundreds of years old.
"It's like a tree," Freddie commented, running one finger of her free hand along the golden thread as high as she could reach, tracing the branches down.
"The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black," her mother said reverently. "The most complete history of pureblood heritage in existence, dating all the way back to the 13th century. Here's our branch – Wilhelmina Black married Drustan Gray in 17- Don't touch it, Winifred!"
Her mother had finally noticed Freddie tracing the golden lines with her tiny finger. She snatched her away from the tapestry, twisting her arm until she cried out in pain. With a burst of uncontrolled magic from Freddie the windows cracked and the glass on the cabinets shattered. With a disgusted look at her daughter, Alexia Gray drew her wand to repair the damage.
"You will treat this ancient lineage with the respect it deserves," Alexia snarled and Freddie cowed as her mother raised her wand menacingly.
"It's alright, Alexia," said a voice as a dark-haired teenager entered the room. With a flick of his wand the shattered glass of the cabinet repaired itself. "No harm done."
"Uncle Reggie!" Young Freddie cried in relief and ran to hug his legs. The boy chuckled and patted the top of her head affectionately.
"She needs to learn, Regulus," Alexia said sternly, but he was already scooping Freddie up and he carried her back over to the tapestry.
"Look there, Winifred," Regulus said, pointing to an image towards the bottom of the tree. "That's me there, see?"
"And your mum!" Freddie declared, pointing at the picture above his.
"That's right," he chuckled.
"What's that?" she asked with a frown. There was a spot next to Regulus' picture that looked like it had been burned. "Why's that mark there? Was it on fire?"
"No," he said, looking very sad all of a sudden, but also nervous as he glanced at Alexia then back at the young girl in his arms. "That was...my brother."
"You have a brother?" Freddie asked, eyes wide.
"Not anymore," Alexia said harshly, causing Freddie to flinch. "He was a traitor to his own kind! Mudblood-loving filth who broke his mother's heart."
"Right! Blood traitor," Regulus spat forcefully but even at her age Freddie could see the pain and fear in his eyes, but she didn't understand it...
"Behold the lineage of the noble and most ancient clan of Black," said a bitter voice, jerking Freddie from her repressed memory. She whirled around, wand in hand, to find Sirius Black leaning moodily against the doorjamb.
"Bloody hell!" she swore, lowering her wand. "Are you trying to give me a heart attack?"
"I owed you one from the Shrieking Shack," he said with a faint smirk.
"You're lucky I didn't curse you," she muttered, turning back to look at the tapestry but remaining overly-aware of the man behind her. Black came to stand beside her as she inspected the tapestry, searching for Regulus' name and picture. She had no other memories of the teenaged boy she'd called 'Uncle Reggie', but she must have known him. And if she'd known him that well, at that age, then she could only assume Regulus Black had been a Death Eater. Plenty of members of the Black family had been Death Eaters, like Narcissa and Bellatrix, so it wasn't a leap...but why had he looked so frightened?
"What's wrong with you anyway?" Black asked with an air of indifference. "When I walked in, you looked like you'd seen a ghost. Do you scare that easily, Gray?"
"No," she retorted, trying to ignore his taunting. "It was nothing. I don't know what you're talking about."
"Uh-huh," he said lightly, clearly not believing her. He turned his attention to the tapestry and studied it silently a moment. "Your family on here? I know you're probably pureblood. There's no mistaking the Slytherin in you."
"I'm going to take that as a compliment," she said coolly, searching for the names her mother had mentioned.
"Wasn't meant as one, but take it however you want," Black said with an indifferent shrug. Freddie ignored him, scanning the tree until she found them.
"There," she said, pointing but not touching the old tapestry, as if some part of her was worried her mother would appear and snatch her away again. "Wilhelmina Black and Drustan Gray, married 1768. There's no branches beneath them here, I guess because she was a woman and took her husband's name-"
"Right," he confirmed with a nod.
"-but my family had a book with all the Gray family history in it, going back three centuries. Nothing like this... Not that this sort of thing matters to me anymore anyway," she said bitterly. Sirius Black grinned at her and Freddie scowled. "Where are you on this stupid thing anyway?"
"I was there," he said and her stomach did a backflip as Black pointed to the burn mark beside Regulus' name. "My dear old mum blasted me off when I ran away from home at 16. I'm not the only one, see – Tonks' mother used to be right there."
"Why'd you run away? Because you were a Muggle-loving blood-traitor?" Freddie said with a slight smirk.
"How'd you guess?" Black chuckled, grinning back at her. "I just couldn't take the blood purity nonsense anymore. I was always the 'black sheep' of my family. I was sorted into Gryffindor when everyone else in my family was obviously Slytherin, even my younger brother. I was only 16 when I left home."
I guess Sirius Black and I have more in common than I would've guessed, she thought to herself. Then her mind went back to the memory that had surfaced and her 'Uncle Reggie'.
"So," she began cautiously. "Your brother, Regulus-"
"There you are, Freddie!" said Tonks' cheerful voice, interrupting her. "Are you ready to go? Sorry I took so long. Mad-Eye was being extra paranoid thinking someone had stolen his cloak, then he found it."
"Who could blame him after being locked in a trunk for the last year," Black said dryly. "Course now I know how that feels."
"Don't be so bitter, Sirius," Tonks said bracingly. "You're no use to anyone if you get caught and thrown back in Azkaban. I'm sure the heat from the Ministry will die off soon."
"I'm no use to anyone now," he muttered under his breath as he stalked out of the room. Tonks just looked at Freddie and shrugged.
"Yeah, I'm ready to go if you are," Freddie told her. "I've got my Invisibility Potion in my bag, should I go ahead and take it?"
"Yeah, do that. I'll put the cloak on when we get outside then we can do Side-Along Apparation and I'll show you the employee entrance to the Ministry."