Starfall

1987

Regulus apparated outside the gates to Chenenoir, the ancestral home of the Blacks. The manor was built centuries before—though no one really remembered exactly how old it was—in a corner of France that rarely saw villagers. Despite there being a small town nearby, few people visited it, and Chenenoir remained hidden thanks to the vast amount of wards on the building.

The gates swung inwards as he reached them, the wards allowing him passage into the beautiful gardens of the manor—large hedges, flowerbeds, and fountains, all with paths leading through. 

Regulus made his way through the gardens to the front door of the manor, pricking his thumb when he reached it on a small needle in an alcove in the stone wall around the door, before drawing his wand once more and weaving the runes that formed the password to Chenenoir—much like the ones at the Chateau, but even more complex—and entered the building.

The entrance hall was grand, with tall, arched ceilings and staircases leading up to the second and third floor. Regulus made his way to the right, entering into a door that led to another decently sized room.

A round, black table sat in the center, twelve seats sitting around it, one for each living blood relative of the House of Black. Three of the seats were already filled. Arcturus Black, Cassiopeia Black, and Alphard Black sat at the table.

Regulus took his seat to the right of his grandfather just as he heard the floor in a small side room go off, and the door to said room opened as he settled revealing his cousin Andromeda alongside her daughter, Nymphadora.

Everyone was silent for the next few minutes as the last couple of people trickled in. Regulus’ aunt Lucretia was an elegant woman with straight black hair that most everyone in the family possessed, but her eyes were a light brownish gold that was almost the opposite of the silver most Blacks had.

Andromeda’s sister, Narcissa, on the other hand, had the silver eyes but her hair was the blonde that was the Rosier family trademark.

There were still several empty seats remaining, for those who were either not able to attend or too young. A seat appeared at birth for each blood relative of the House of Black, but children were not allowed into the official family meetings until they turned thirteen. 

Once everyone had been seated, Arcturus spoke. “Regulus, how is the hunt going?”

Regulus sighed. “Not well. From what I’ve been able to tell, the diary was the first one created, as it holds half of Riddle’s soul, but Hufflepuff’s cup only has 12.5% and the locket has even less at 6.25%. This means there’s at least one more horcrux out there, but frankly, I’m stumped. Unless we can discover more about Tom Riddle, I doubt we’ll be able to find whatever it is.”

At this point, Cassiopeia interrupted. “Oh shut up, we’ve already gone over this a billion times, we all know this. Why don’t we focus on what we’re actually going to do with the horcruxes when we find them?”

“I agree with aunt Cassi, Lord Black. We’ve been too focused on finding them rather than what we’re actually going to do. Are we going to destroy them? Are we going to find a way to piece Riddle’s soul back together? Or are we going to do something else altogether? Because we need to do something. Trying to find the horcruxes has gotten us nowhere in the past few years.” 

Narcissa’s voice was soft but powerful, and the rest of the people in the room listened. Regulus, personally, thought she made some good points.

“We shouldn’t completely give up on the hunt though, we still need to find them.” He countered her expertly.

Arcturus’ voice came from beside Regulus,cand he glanced over to see a slight frown on his face. “Very well. Regulus, continue trying to dig into the Dark Lord’s past, Cassiopeia and Narcissa, start researching ways to either fix his soul or destroy the horcruxes. Focus on the first one though, these are the founder's objects, and it would not do us any good to destroy them.”

The three he spoke to nodded. 

“Now, on account of Sirius and Bellatrix. Bellatrix has been imprisoned in Azkaban for the torture that led to the insanity of the Longbottoms, however we have discussed how she may be under some form of mind manipulation. We have so far been unable to prove this, as despite our standing we have been unable to remove her from that dreadful prison in order to properly test her for outside magic. As of this moment, she has been disowned for six years. If we find that she has truly been under the influence of outside magic, she will be reinstated.”

The group around the table nodded. They all already knew this information, and it frustrated Regulus that they had been unable to get Bellatrix out of Azkaban even for a few moments in order to test her outside of the sapping presence of the prison which made magical tests highly inaccurate.

Andromeda spoke up. “I’ve been looking into it, Regulus, Narcissa, you said she changed around the time she was married, correct?” Regulus nodded and he saw Narcissa the same from across the table. 

Narcissa spoke with a small frown as she nodded. “She started acting more manic around then, goining out to torture muggles more often and taking glee in it, not that she didn’t before, but she was more insane. She’s always been unhinged, and it’s quite possible that she finally snapped, but it could have been something else.”

“It’s quite possible then that something in the marriage contract influenced her. We all know the Lestrange brother’s parents were a piece of work so I wouldn’t put it past them. I’ve so far been unable to get a hold of the contract itself, only copies, so I can't search it properly either.” Andromeda sighed, looking back down at the papers in her hands. “There’s nothing in this copy that should have affected her to that extent.”

“Are we sure there wasn’t another contract somewhere that she could have signed, or it could just be a spell or potion, who’s to say it was the contract?” Aunt Lucretia interjected. 

“In that case, Andromeda, keep trying to get the original copy of the contract from the Lestranges, and Lucretia, you can help her as well as start researching those other options with her. As for Sirius, he is a blood traitor but we have not yet disowned him despite him working for the insane Dark Lord. The only reason we have not disowned him yet is because he resides in Azkaban in top security with no visitors so we cannot know why he did what he did.”

Regulus frowned and nodded along slightly. It had always struck him as odd. “As I brought up to you a few years ago, grandfather, he told me multiple times that he saw Potter as more of a brother than me, and it strikes me odd that he would betray him.”

“Well, if he betrayed you by saying that, then it makes sense that he’d be willing to betray a brother, and if he saw Potter as a brother then why is that any worse than what he did to you?” Surprisingly, it was the fourteen year old Nymphadora that spoke.

Everyone went silent. Cassiopeia broke it after a few moments. “Excellent point, little Dora, why is it worse? We’ve already seen that Sirius is capable of betrayal to those close to him, so why is it so hard to believe that he betrayed Potter?”

Regulus let out a hoarse laugh. “Because it didn’t kill me, and he did see James as more of a brother than me. It only makes sense that he would be willing to do things to me that he wouldn’t have to Potter.”

“It’s still unclear. We will leave this topic to rest for the moment, and revisit it in a few years perhaps when we can actually speak to him. I’m still upset that they didn’t think to notify me of his trial.”

Alphard rolled his eyes, breaking the silence he had held for the entire meeting so far. “You must remember that most of the wizarding world thinks that my eldest nephew is disowned, and as such they may not find it prudent to inform you because of that fact, Arcturus.”

Lucretia nodded along. “He’s right Father, most people still believe what that awful excuse of a witch Walburga said and did whenever she was out in public.”

“Very well. In that case, moving on. Nymphadora, how are your studies coming along?”

The girl in question grinned. “Quite well, Grandpa, I love it. Snape hates me though.”

Regulus sighed. “Nym, he doesn’t hate you, you’re just clumsy and that can be dangerous when brewing so he’s cautious. Also, it’s ‘professor’ Snape.”

She held her nose high as her pink hair took on a red tint. “He could be a bit nicer about it though.”

Regulus almost laughed when Andromeda pinched the bridge of her nose. One of her daughter's new favorite pastimes was seeing how often she could annoy her mother. “Nymphadora Tonks. Severus is a teacher at Hogwarts, and you should respect him.”

Before the teen could say anything else, Cassiopeia interrupted. “Just don’t let your parents hear it and you’ll be fine.” She waved a hand, dismissing the conversation. “Oh, and don’t let the old bat hear it either.”

Andromeda looked at her in horror, and Regulus leaned back in his seat, a small smile on his face that he was failing to hide. 

Arcturus coughed. “That’s enough. Nymphadora, Professor Snape is only going to dislike you more if he hears you making fun of him.”

Regulus glanced over at Alphard, and saw that he recognized what the man had said just as much as he had by the small smirk that matched Regulus’s on his face. Arcturus hadn’t said not to insult Severus, only to do it when he wasn’t within hearing range. 

Sometimes it scares Regulus how much Cassi and his grandfather got along. It seemed at times that they shared a brain cell.

“Now, unless there was anything else that anyone would like to bring to our attention, I believe this meeting is over.”

Narcissa spoke softly. “What about the Union? I know that we’ve discussed it, but we haven’t made any formal decision yet.”

The Union was a bit of a project of her’s and his grandfather’s. The thought was that they could unite some of the dark and grey houses into one coalition in an effort to help pass some laws that they wanted, as at the moment the light faction was trying to pass laws to ban certain holidays and even more spells that  they decided were dark, for some reason or another.

Arcturus’ voice brought Regulus back to reality. “Excellent, Narcissa dear, have you spoken to Lucius about it yet?”

She nodded. “Yes, and he agrees that it would be a good idea.”

“Pandora has also told me that she would be interested when I approached her.” Regulus said as he pulled out an envelope from his robes. “She wanted me to give this to you, she had some ideas about who we could possibly invite to join.”

Arcturus’ brows furrowed, but he took the envelope, breaking the seal and opening it, reading it quickly. “She does have some… interesting, yet good ideas. However nice it might be to have a family from the light willing to join, it will be impossible to get anyone to join a dark alliance. The Greengrass’s and the Notts however… they could be good allies. If we managed to get both, that would leave us with them, house Rosier, house Malfoy, and ourselves.”

Narcissa straightened in her seat. “The Nott’s youngest is Draco’s age, I could try to set up a playdate to make initial contact…?”

Everyone agreed, and Arcturus spoke once more. “As for the Greengrass’s, they will be harder. Lucretia, you could try as you married a Prewett, in fact, have you broached the subject with your husband?”

The woman in question shook her head. “I was uncertain whether you would want a light house to join, but I do think he would be open to the idea.”

Regulus interjected. “That would also give us an in with the light faction, grandfather, which would do us well. If we do go through with this, are we revealing that I am still alive?”

Everyone knew what he meant. Most of the world considered him dead, but if they were to create an alliance of this scale it would do them no good to try and hide things.

“Not immediately, no. Maybe once we get a better lay of the land and are more established we can revisit the topic of telling them that you live, but for now I think that Lucretia telling her husband of our plans and Narcissa making contact with the Notts should be our first goal. Dismissed.”

They all stood apart from Arcturus, and exited the room, either back through the front door or through the floor in the side room.