AN: Here's the next one not near as heavy but still deals with similar themes from the last chapter.
Chapter 32: Terminated
Bern, Switzerland
A surprise visit from Harry was never a bad thing. However, one look at his cousin's new hair he knew his son's early arrival for his summer visit hadn't been exactly a pleasant surprise. Especially since Cissy had her elves bring what seemed to her entire wardrobe as well as several Black family heirlooms with her. Also, he noticed that her face suspiciously looked like it had a glamor on it. He better not have…
No, he wouldn't. He knew Lucius as big of a bastard as he was, he wouldn't hurt her. He hoped.
He didn't even have to ask his son to go to his room to give them privacy, Harry knew and left them alone.
What the hell happened?
He looked at Cissy who seemed extremely pale. "He found out, didn't he?"
She nodded.
"Cissy."
"I don't want to talk about it, Siri. I need you to examine me."
He was seriously concerned.
"I am not going back there." She babbled.
"And when he comes looking for you here?" He asked knowing very well Lucius would be calling.
"He won't. Besides, I'm not planning on staying long term," she said. "I'm going to go to the coven eventually."
He gave her a dubious look he had heard how primitive that place was. If Claire couldn't handle it Cissy certainly couldn't. "Really, Cissy."
"I'm going to have to go at some point," she said. "I halfway thought it might've happened today. I was…I was too upset."
Sirius blanched.
"I got control over myself." She said, "Clearly, but…"
"Your hair." He said.
She looked at him oddly.
"Have you looked at yourself in the mirror lately?"
"Not since I left, I take it it's no longer black?"
He shook his head. "Nope, it's silver."
She looked like she was going to throw up. "You know what, I don't even care anymore."
It had been a couple of weeks since he last saw Cissy. He got his wand out to perform a scan. Other than looking ridiculously pale, the glamours, and having veela hair she looked almost the same. He eyed her robes.
"I haven't told Harry yet. I didn't want him to see…" She said. "I had to get out of there fast anyway after he…"
Sirius grimaced. "Do I even want to know?"
"Let's just say Lucius reacted even worse than I thought he would."
"I'm sorry, Cissy. Do I need to kill him?"
She shook her head. "No. We can't have you going back to Azkaban again, as much as I'd like you to disembowel him right now. What I need is for you to formally annual the marriage and enact the no contact clause as the presumed head of the Black family."
He gave her a weird look as she showed him her hand. It was free of the Malfoy engagement and wedding ring.
"Dissolve it, Siri. I can't…I can't be married to someone who ordered me to kill my children. Who hit me. Who threw the termination curse at me."
"He what?" He said he was going to kill Lucius as he cancelled the glamour charm and frowned when he saw that half of her face was bruised and her one eye was swollen shut.
"Calm down. Can you please check the babies? He….he hit my stomach as well. I'm not experiencing any bleeding or any symptoms but…"
She opened her robes up. She had grown quite a bit since he last saw her, which was expected. There was no denying she was pregnant now. Though she had filled out all over, her stomach was still larger than the rest of her. The bruise on her was large and hideous. Cursing, he ran some diagnostics. Miraculously, she and the babies were fine.
"I am going to curse that bastard…"
"I need you to control yourself and just annual the marriage for now. Him impregnating me with a daughter should be good enough reason to. Mother made me read that section over and over for a reason. Also, enact the no contact provisions. I think I already broke the bond at least so it should be a mere formality"
He sighed heavily. "Done."
"Thank you," she said, "I just can't anymore. I think it has been stressing me out more than anything else."
"I'll take care of it tonight; I wish you'd let me do more." He said having a few ideas what he wanted to do to that bastard of a husband of hers that he knew his late wife would approve of. "But let me do some more scans first. We probably need to run some blood work too to see what your levels are. I'll also get some bruise balm for your face and stomach. Do you think he broke anything?"
"My teeth feel a little loose, but other than that I think it's just the black eye and the bruises."
He ran some additional scans while her robes were open. The babies were still growing as they should be, though he was slightly concerned with her blood pressure and blood sugar levels. She was bit heavier than he'd like too. He could only imagine how hard she had been hitting the sugar the stress she was enduring.
"No sugar," He told her sternly. "I'll get you a bruise balm and something to help with your teeth and eye"
She rolled her one good eye. He noticed the color was different they seemed to have a purplish tinge to them similar to Claire's. "I only had a few cookies today, Siri."
"Only a few?"
She groaned, "Okay, so more than a few, but it was a hard day. I had to get some stress relief somehow and it's not like I can buy anything cute when I look like this. Not even shoes. My feet are so swollen."
He rolled his eyes at how dramatic she was being, but glad he had gotten her focus off of Lucius. That bastard was going to pay for hurting her and her children. He could only just imagine what Bella would've done to him if she had been alive.
Probably would've castrated the bastard.
At least.
Once he got her settled, he checked on Harry before he headed to the Bern Gringotts branch to officially dissolve Cissy's marriage contract.
"Is Aunt Cissy going to be okay?" He asked.
Sirius gave him a look, "What makes you think she's not?"
"Because we left in a hurry, her face was all red, and her hair looks sort of like Claire's. Something's going on."
Sirius nodded, "An astute observation. You remember what I told you about Claire?"
Harry nodded. Sirius had told him that the woman was a veela not that long ago just in case her allure affected him. He didn't think it would—his son was eleven after all—but just in case he wanted Harry to be prepared. Not that Harry even looked at Claire remotely like that.
"Lucius also has the veela gene," His father said. "Occasionally, the gene can be passed down to their spouse when…."
"She's pregnant." Harry stated.
Sirius looked at him.
"I'm not daft," Harry said. "I've seen her run to the bathroom and I know her clothes have been fitting tighter. I've suspected for a while, but you don't exactly ask about that sort of thing."
"No, you don't." He said. "But essentially because she's pregnant with girls the gene passed down to her. So she's becoming like Claire if that makes any sense."
"Sort of. Wait, you said girls? Is she having twins."
"Triplets," Sirius said.
Harry's mouth dropped wide open.
Andromeda raised an eyebrow when she saw Cissy storm into St. Mungo's that morning.
"I thought you liked the black," she said shocked at the change at the dramatic changes Cissy had made to her hair.
It was almost the same color as Lucius but different, a silverish blonde. What was most alarming though was that Cissy's hair was just as short if not shorter than her daughter's hair. Which was to say she didn't have much hair mostly just fringe. The extreme pixie cut did look good on her. It made her eyes pop they almost had a purplish hue to them. What the hell was going on?
Narcissa sighed, "It's a long story."
She looked upset. Usually, Andromeda didn't pry but she felt like saying something. "Are you okay?"
Cissy shook her head. "I'll be fine."
Andromeda raised an eyebrow.
"Really, Andi, it's nothing that can't be changed." Her sister said and then Andromeda noticed that her sister wasn't wearing her ring.
"Office, now." She said knowing things weren't fine. At all.
"But Emma Granger…"
"Isn't going to be here for twenty minutes and we're going to be talking in there anyway," Andromeda said dragging her sister off to her office.
When the got to her office, she noticed it just wasn't Cissy's hair and lack of a ring that seemed off about her, but her eyes they were bright red, and it wasn't her imagination the color looked odd.
"What is going on?"
Cissy sighed and loosened the belt around her robes. Andromeda's mouth almost dropped as she saw her sister's body instantly transform. She had noticed that Cissy had put on weight, but she had just thought it was from stress eating not this. "You're…you're pregnant."
Cissy nodded then it clicked. The hair color. The eyes. The pale complexion.
"Oh, Merlin, no." Andromeda said.
Cissy nodded. "He wants me to get rid of them. He called them monsters. He thinks I'm becoming a monster."
She should terminate. She agreed with Lucius on that. But she knew she would feel the same as her sister if the positions were turned. And at the end of the day it was Cissy's choice what she chose to do with her body. And neither Cissy nor her children were monsters.
"I can't do that to my babies." Cissy said looking like she was going to cry. "He demanded it was going to order me as my lord, and I told him it was over. And then….then he hit me and tried to hit me with the termination curse."
"He what?"
It was her worst fear that Lucius would touch her sister like that. She had been pleasantly surprise with how well the marriage seemed but now…
"I'll kill him." She probably resembled her oldest sister right now. And she would. No one touched her little sister especially when she was fucking pregnant. She still couldn't believe that mother fucker had touched his pregnant wife.
Lord, she was starting to sound like Amelia Bones.
"Get in line, Andi. It doesn't matter. I had Siri dissolve the marriage last night."
Andromeda's eyes widened.
"He broke the terms of the agreement by impregnating me with a daughter," Cissy stated.
"And he hit you and tried to kill you children."
"Yes, that too." Narcissa said looking upset.
"That doesn't explain the new doo," She said looking at Narcissa's spiky new doo.
"I just….I just had to do something after Sirius fixed me up. He loved my long hair . It gave me a sense of control back weird as is sounds. It's also a lot easier to deal with it in the morning. I honestly wish I would've done it sooner. He…he wasn't the man I married, Andi."
"What are you going to do about Draco?"
Cissy frowned. "Per the terms of the agreement Draco and the babies will be viewed as illegitimate. Lucius has no responsibility or legal rights to them. I do not intend on seeking his support. As I am a Black and a successful healer, I have plenty of money. Besides, I am not entitled to any of the Malfoy money nor do I want any. If something happens to me during the change I want either you or Siri to raise them."
"Wait, did you say babies?" Somehow she had overlooked that then again having your little sister come into your office and tell you that she's pregnant and leaving her husband because he ordered her to kill her babies and abused her sort of made you lose track of the details.
Narcissa nodded. "Yes, I'm having triplets, Andi."
Triplets. No wonder she was big. It took her a moment to get collected before she said, "Do you want me to give you Ted's number. I don't know if you need a lawyer with the marriage being annulled, but it wouldn't hurt to at least have some documents in place for estate planning purposes"
Cissy nodded as they heard door knock and she readjusted her robes allowing the concealing charms to take effect before allowing Emma Granger in. However, Emma was not alone.
He still hadn't wrapped it around his head that he had a daughter with Peter Pettigrew's sister.
Or that Peter had a sister.
Admittedly, Emma was the sort of woman he would've dated when he dated. He really hadn't been much for dating.
His little furry problem had kept him from really ever pursing anyone he didn't want to burden anyone with it or possibly pass down his condition to his own child—he grimaced as he thought about his own little girl. A little girl whose life might depend on being infected.
He still hadn't exactly wrapped his head around it, even though Emma had explained it to him as well as Sirius's cousins. Of course, they'd be caring for his daughter…
"So, infecting her will kill the mutation."
"In theory," Narcissa said. "It should revert her base form to human or there's a slight chance her base form might now be a rat. Though I don't think we've reached that stage yet, she has come around some."
Some.
He hated what Emma had told them their daughter had dealt with for the past few months. Transforming back and forth every moon cycle. The slightest bit of trauma throwing her back into the form her classmates cruelly turned her into.
"I don't like this," He said. He didn't want his child to experience the same life as he had.
"I know," Andromeda said. "But it might be her only option. Her status hearing is in a few weeks."
He nodded. He remembered what Emma had told him. He had been horrified about the whole thing, but not surprised. There were several reasons—besides the fact that Peter had likely messed with his mind—why he had left magical Britain all those years ago. He may not have gotten the job he dreamed about studying dark creatures, but he had made a fairly successful living with enchanting.
"Which is the only reason I'm even remotely considering this," he said thinking of his daughter being sentenced to a life as a common garden rat because of some cruel kids. "I won't…. I won't have to bite her will I?"
"No," Andromeda said. "A couple of blood transfusions should be enough. There's a chance with the transfusion she might not even be fully infected. It's low but…."
"Then do it," He said he then turned to Emma, "You realize she'll be viewed as a second-class citizen here, right if she changes?"
"Like she wasn't before?" Emma said.
He frowned. "I'm sorry."
"You don't have anything to be sorry for," Emma said. "You're giving her a new lease on life, you don't know how much I appreciate this. How much she'll appreciate it."
She might not though. He knew how hard it was to live as a werewolf. "I'll…I"ll help her through the change."
Emma nodded as preparations were made to begin the procedure while he was led to where his little girl was.
She wasn't a little girl though. He frowned when he saw the rat in the cage.
"She can't hear you," Narcissa told him. "We've put soundproofing on the cage. She doesn't remember anything when she's in this form anyway. She uses it as an escape we think."
"Losing my mind was one of the worst parts about transforming. I can't imagine…"
"A lot happened this fall," Narcissa said. "The papers really only touched the surface. Draco…he mentioned talking to her before it happened. He only finally told me at Easter. He…well, he feels guilty about what happened."
"Your son's in Slytherin right?"
She nodded.
"Sirius says he's sort of like he was when he was a kid."
"He is," She said. "Though I'm hope he'll grow up before Sirius does."
"Shouldn't be to hard considering this is Sirius we are talking about."
Narcissa rolled her eyes. They were an interesting color, he thought. Grey but they also looked like they had a violent tint to them. He also noticed her hair for the first time. Had she colored it since the last time he saw her? It had been years. Whatever case the severe short silver-blonde cut suited her well and made her eyes pop.
"Sirius isn't that bad. Sometimes I worry Draco's becoming too much like his father."
He gave her a weird look.
"Lucius is cruel," She stated bluntly a look coming over her. "He doesn't think about what he says to people and I'm afraid my son has those tendencies as well."
"Aren't you married to the guy?" He said then noticing for the time her finger was bare.
Interesting.
"Annulled," She said. "You'll probably read about it in the papers soon enough. It will be a huge scandal."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be, I'm not." She said as she looked at him. "Emma doesn't visit her much when she's a rat anymore. It's too hard on her. Not that I can blame her."
There seemed nothing human about the rat he thought as it chewed on the corn that was in the cage with it. There was nothing about it that looked remotely human. She honestly reminded him a little bit of Peter which made him wanted to throw up a little, but it was true. He had been a common brown garden rat as well.
"The full moon is about in a week," Narcissa said. "We'll likely begin the transfusions then. It will take likely three moon cycles to know if she's infected or not."
He frowned thinking his daughter might suffer the same as him.
"I know it's a hard decision," she said as she sat in one of the chairs next to them.
"It really isn't," He said. "Do you know what I mean?"
The silver haired woman nodded. Oddly enough, he thought she really knew what he meant. He had never really been around Sirius's cousin a lot, she was a few years younger than him, but she wasn't as icy as he thought she'd be. She was fairly sympathetic and relatable. How weird….
"I'd do anything for my son," She finally said in a soft voice. "And any other children I have if it meant they could have a chance at life. So yes, I do understand."
Chapter 33 Preview: Claire offers Sirius an autographed copy of her boyfriend's book, Lucius and Draco pout, and Hermione's new treatment regime begins.
