Unseen Changes part 2
Unseen Changes part 2
In this alternate timeline, Petunia Evans influence on the world sets off a series of changes that ripple through the wizarding community. One of the most significant consequences is her encouragement of Eileen Prince, Severus Snape’s mother, to sell potions to the poor and marginalized witches and wizards. Eileen, moved by Petunia’s kindness and understanding of hardship, begins providing potions to those in need, particularly focusing on werewolves—creatures often shunned by society.
One fateful evening, Fenrir Greyback, leader of the werewolves, finds himself in need of a potion for a member of his pack. While purchasing supplies, he overhears Lionel Lupin harshly criticizing werewolves, calling them nothing more than monsters. Eileen, who is nearby, cannot remain silent. She tells Lupin, "It’s easy to judge those below when you’ve never suffered. Werewolves are people, too—they simply need help, especially during the full moon. I know what it’s like to be in need, and I was helped when I thought no one would. I will always try to help those who are suffering."
Moved by her words, Greyback purchases the potions and, thinking on Eileen’s compassion, decides to show mercy toward Lionel Lupin, who had spoken so cruelly. That night, instead of targeting Lionel's son, he plans to infect Lionel with the curse, but when Lionel sees Fenrir and panics, he uses his son, Remus, as a shield. In the chaos, Remus is scratched across the face by Greyback, who, realizing the boy wasn’t to blame, feels a pang of guilt. Greyback, unexpectedly moved by the child’s bravery, decides to leave the house and sends an owl to Eileen, asking if she can help the boy.
Eileen arrives at the Lupin household as quickly as possible, bringing with her a potion—an early form of what would one day become the Wolfsbane Potion. However, since Remus was scratched and never fully bitten, he doesn’t become a werewolf in the traditional sense. Instead, the curse manifests in a different way: during each moon cycle, Remus’s body becomes the battleground for his magic and the curse. The two forces clash for control, making him violently ill, fragile, and prone to aggressive, self-inflicted behavior, though he never undergoes the physical transformation of a werewolf.
The consequences of this altered curse are devastating, leaving Remus to cope with both the physical and emotional scars of a condition that leaves him neither fully human nor fully beast. Yet, he must find a way to navigate this tormenting existence, all while hiding the truth from others, knowing that his secret could lead to further rejection.
Petunia Evans influence on the world has far-reaching consequences, including the way magical families view blood status. When it is revealed that two prominent Muggleborn witches—Lily Evans future Potter and Petunia Evans—are actually descendants of squibs, a storm of unease ripples through the most extreme blood-purist families. The knowledge that “Muggleborns” could, in fact, have wizarding ancestry forces even the staunchest supporters of blood purity to reconsider their approach to “Mudbloods.”
The Black family, notorious for their obsession with bloodlines, is one of the first to learn of this revelation. Arcturus Black, the patriarch of the family, begins a private investigation into his own bloodline to verify the information. His search leads him to Marius Black, a squib who was disowned by the family years ago. Marius had taken his wife’s name after being cast out, and his descendants—his grandchildren—are now studying at Beauxbatons and Durmstrang under different last name to conceal their Black heritage.
Arcturus uncovers the truth: Marius’s grandchildren are magical, and thus, the Black family is not immune to the possibility of having squib descendants hidden within their line. Arcturus, though initially troubled by this discovery, sees an opportunity for change. He holds a secret family meeting with the elder Blacks, as well as his son’s generation, to share his findings. Arcturus explains that this new revelation is actually good news. It offers an explanation for the mental instability and madness that runs through the Black family line—a result, it turns out, of generations of too-close inbreeding.
Arcturus then lays down new family rules. He declares that, moving forward, any marriage to a Muggleborn or a Halfblood will depend on the results of the inheritance test, which will determine whether the partner is descended from a squib line. This decision, though contentious, paves the way for a new era of more careful and deliberate bloodline management. It also presents a solution for some of the younger Blacks, particularly for Andromeda, who had long desired to marry Ted Tonks, a Muggleborn.
Andromeda’s decision to reject her arranged marriage to the Malfoy family is finally given legitimacy, thanks to the inheritance test confirming that Ted Tonks is, in fact, descended from a squib line in the Burkes and Rosiers. Though Cygnus and Druella Black are furious with their daughter’s choice, the inheritance test alleviates their concerns about blood purity. However, Ted’s lack of wealth presents another issue. Druella, unwilling to entirely disown her daughter’s decision, negotiates a condition: if Andromeda and Ted are to marry, Ted must take the Black family name, and Andromeda will be recognized as the matriarch of her own line, separate from the Tonks family. Ted, now known as Theodore Corvus Black, agrees to the arrangement.
This more relaxed and neutral approach to blood purity gradually shifts the Black family’s political stance. Arcturus, disillusioned with the extreme views of the more radical elements of the wizarding world, wants his family to remain more neutral. He enforces these new family laws, which prevents the Blacks from fully supporting the rise of a new, radical blood-purist faction that has begun to take root. This political shift also affects Arcturus’s own household. He uses the family’s new neutral stance as an excuse to seclude his daughter-in-law, Walburga, in a different manor. Walburga, unable to adapt to the family’s more neutral position, is isolated from the family, with Orion Black’s approval, as she proves to be increasingly resistant to change.
In this world, the shift in family dynamics has far-reaching consequences, particularly for Sirius Black. As the heir to the Black family, Sirius is privy to the changes in the family’s ideology and the reasons behind them. With his father more present at home and more vocal about the family’s new stance, the family begins to see the flaws in the rigid beliefs of his childhood. The Black family’s more neutral approach to blood purity diminishes Sirius’s earlier fascination with Muggles. His father’s teachings about Muggle history, particularly the horrors of World War I and II, show Sirius that Muggles are capable of cruelty, but also of compassion and heroism just like wizards.
In this altered world, Sirius is not the rebellious Gryffindor we know. Instead, he becomes a Ravenclaw, drawn to the house’s values of intellect, curiosity, and independence. His shift to Ravenclaw is also influenced by his privileged understanding of the deeper shifts within his family, which alters his outlook on life. The newfound complexity of the Black family’s political views and his own evolving perspective on blood purity, history, and morality steer Sirius onto a very different path than the one he originally took.