A surprise Godfather
With Arachne weaving her web of distraction, Bianca seized the opportune moment to slip through the chinks in the Dementors' armor, her movements fluid and resolute. The endless corridors of Azkaban loomed before her, their ominous shadows threatening to swallow her whole as they pressed in on all sides.
Guided by the blood magic that pulsed on the parchment in her hands, Bianca navigated the labyrinthine passages with determination. She was using the blood of her student, freely given so that she would be able to find and save Regulus’ brother.
Each step forward would be a battle against the suffocating aura of despair that hung heavy in the air, threatening to extinguish the resolve of a normal person even a normal Dragel. Only Bianca wasn’t normal, she was one of the most powerful Storm types in Nevarah.
So she pressed on, her focus unwavering as she followed the faint trail of Sirius Black's blood. It led her deeper into the heart of the prison, past rows of dreary cells that housed the tormented souls of the people imprisoned here.
Finally, she stood before a cell bathed in shadows, its iron bars a grim reminder of the injustice that had imprisoned its occupant.
She stares into the darkness, until she snaps her fingers allowing for a crackle of lightning to light up on each of her fingers. As the spell took hold, it case an ethereal light that illuminated the darkness of the cell. And there, in the faint glow of its radiance, Bianca saw him.
In the dim luminescence cast by the crackling lightning, Sirius Black materialized, an enigmatic figure enshrouded in the cloak of shadows yet bearing an unmistakable aura of fortitude. His countenance bore the weathered lines of time's passage, a tapestry of resilience woven amidst the harsh fabric of captivity. Though the ravages of his imprisonment had left their mark upon him, there lingered an indomitable spirit that radiated from within, a silent hymn of endurance amidst the cacophony of despair. It reminded her of his brother. Regulus, too, wasn’t one to give up so easily.
Sirius’ form, once proud and resplendent, now stood dimmed and pained, a result of the trials he endured. Yet beneath the veneer of weariness lay a reservoir of strength unyielding. In the depths of his gaze burned an ember of suspicion, a beacon of light amidst the encroaching shadows that sought to engulf him. He was ready to fight her. He would not allow her to hurt him, had she had the intention.
“Someone sent me here,” She says, her voice firm as it echoed in the prison. “They discovered your innocence and have sent me to retrieve you,” Bianca says, and Sirius blinks at her, the suspicion instantly waning into a mixture of desperation and hope.
“Who- Who sent you?” His voice cracks with misuse, his expression surprised and skeptic.
“I will not speak their name here,”
Sirius's eyes widened in disbelief, grappling with the possibility of freedom after years of confinement. “You’re here to r-retrieve me?" he echoed, his voice tinged with disbelief.
Bianca nodded, her gaze unwavering as she met his eyes. “Indeed, that's right," She confirms, her tone steady despite the turmoil roiling within her. "We know you're innocent, Sirius. Regardless of what happened, they know you would have never betrayed the Potters.” Bianca says and Sirius stumbles slowly to his feet, his head tilted to the side in deep thought.
“They know for sure?” Sirius was surprised. There weren’t a lot of people that aligned with what the woman was telling him. And most of them had either betrayed him or were dead.
“Well shall we leave this hell hole?” Bianca asks, a sneer on her face as she stares at the bars around her.
Sirius's eyes widen in disbelief, his heart pounding with a newfound sense of hope. For so long, he’d suffered in the darkness, branded a criminal without trial or recourse. Yet now, a flicker of hope ignited within him, casting aside the shadows of despair that had clouded his spirit. He didn’t truly trust this woman, but anywhere was better than Azkaban.
And if this woman truly ended up killing him, then at least he’d be with his brothers in death.
“Please,” Sirius whispers his agreement, and Bianca smiles, her eyes glinting with a dangerous spark.
Bianca's smile widened into a determined fierce grin as she took a step back, her eyes alight with a fierce resolve. With a swift motion, she drew back her foot and delivered a powerful kick to the bars of the cell door, the metal groaning in protest before finally giving way under the force of her blow.
Sirius watched in awe at this lady’s display of strength. With a grateful nod, he followed Bianca deeper into the cell, his heart racing with anticipation and trepidation.
With a snap of Bianca’s fingers, the chains holding Sirius’ legs and hands together clatter to the floor, and Sirus stumbles out of them, finally free, his limbs tingling with newfound sensation.
As they stood in the dimly lit cell, Bianca's familiar, Arachne, vanishes into thin air, due to Bianca retracting her magic away from the spider.
With a sense of urgency, Bianca raises a hand and summons a portal, speaking the words to get to his home, "It's time to go, Sirius.” She says and Sirius stares at her.
They were going to Grimmauld?
“It was grandfather wasn’t it?” Sirius asks her, only to receive a very deadly glare that shuts him up immediately.
With a resigned feeling in his stomach, Sirius steps forward, his eyes fixed on the swirling vortex of the portal before him.
But as they moved to step through, the cacophony of jeers and taunts from the other prisoners grew louder, filling the air with a palpable sense of hostility. Sirius hadn’t even realized that he hadn’t been able to hear them until the ward that had been placed around them falls. It appeared that the woman beside him had placed up such a strong ward, Sirius hadn’t been able to sense its presence at all.
The eyes of his neighbouring prisoners were filled with malice and they glared at Sirius from behind the bars of their cells, voices raised in a chorus of scorn and derision.
"Where do you think you're going, Black?" Rabastan Lestrange sneers, his voice dripping with contempt.
“Blacky, blacky, Sirius BLACK,” Bellatrix Lestrange was singing again and again until she was screeching the words, sounding like a harpy more than a woman.
“Move Sirius,” Bianca drawls, not really giving a shit about the words being spat at them. She gently shoves the man through the portal and she hops through, not before she erases every inch of the cell from any trace of both her and Sirius.
It wouldn’t do to have someone track them now would it?
As the swirling vortex of the portal dissipated, Bianca and Sirius found themselves standing in the dimly lit entrance hall of Grimmauld Place. The air was heavy with the scent of dust and neglect, the old house bearing the scars of years of disuse.
Sirius blinked in astonishment, taking in his surroundings with a mixture of awe and apprehension. It had been so long since he had set foot in this place, and the memories it held were both painful and bittersweet.
“Oretta!?” A voice shouts out and it makes Sirius go a bit numb, because… because he knew that voice.
“Oretta is everything okay? You’re back early?”
And the owner of that voice was supposed to be dead.
Sirius' heart skipped a beat when he heard the familiar voice, a voice he had thought he would never hear again. His mind raced with disbelief and hope, his pulse quickening with each passing second.
"Reggie?” Sirius breathed, his voice barely a whisper as he turned to see his brother stepping down from the stairs. For a moment, they simply stood there, staring at each other in stunned silence, the weight of years of separation hanging heavy in the air between them.
Regulus sucks in a harsh breath, his eyes bleeding from the pain, “Sirius,”
Then, as if propelled by some unseen force, Sirius closed the distance between them in a single stride, his arms reaching out to pull his younger brother into a tight embrace.
Tears welled up in his eyes as he felt Regulus' tense with surprise.
When was the last time he’d actually hugged his younger brother?
Sirius wraps his arms around Regulus, holding him tightly. He felt as if Regulus would disappear if he’d let go. The warmth of their embrace banishing the coldness of the years that had kept them apart.
“You-,” Sirius spoke up, his voice trembling slightly with uncertainty. "Can you... can you see him?" He was asking Bianca.
Bianca, who had been watching the reunion with a soft smile, turned her gaze towards Sirius, her expression thoughtful. "Yes, Sirius," she replied, her tone gentle yet firm. "I can see him.”
Regulus sighs, rolling his eyes and he punches his brother hard on his shoulder. “I’m not a ghost you bloody idiot,” Regulus grumbles, smirking at how Sirius yelped with a flinch.
Sirius let out a shaky breath, the weight of his doubt lifting. “I was making sure!” He demands, voice high pitched and Regulus scoffs, however Regulus’ twitching lips betrayed his amusement.
Sirius goes to punch Regulus’ shoulder as well, but his emotions were bubbling over the surface of control, tears whelming in his eyes. His throat was clogging with emotion and so when he went to punch back at his younger brother… the brother he’d believed to be dead for four years… Sirius lets out a hysteric sob.
His heart felt as though it might burst from his chest, the weight of years of regret and longing pressing down upon him. With a choked sob, he scrambles to engulf his brother back into his arms -he was still so short.
Regulus caught him with open arms, holding him close as Sirius buried his face against his shoulder, his body wracked with sobs. The dam that had held back his emotions for so long finally broke, releasing a torrent of grief and relief that threatened to consume him.
"I thought you were gone," Sirius whispered hoarsely, his words muffled against Regulus' shirt. "I thought I'd lost you forever."
Regulus tightened his embrace, his own eyes shining with unshed tears. “I’m so sorry,” Regulus croaks out, “I never meant to hurt you,” Regulus grumbles, but his elder brother sobs even louder.
"Reg," Sirius yell out, his voice thick with emotion. "I thought- you… you were dead. What happened?!” Sirius probably needed a calming draught, “You need to tell me what happened? How are you alive!? Regulus!!” Sirius demands, shaking his shoulders.
Regulus' grip tightened around him, his own voice trembling with emotion as he whispered, "I thought I was dead too,” Regulus admits, painfully.
Sirius's hands trembled as he clung to his brother, his heart pounding erratically in his chest. Waves of panic washed over him, threatening to engulf him in a suffocating tide of fear and uncertainty. He couldn't make sense of the world around him, couldn't reconcile the impossible truth of Regulus standing before him, alive and breathing. “Reggie… James, James broke when we thought you died,” Sirius let go of his brother and begun to pace, his fingers twitching with nerves.
Regulus sighs, Sirius’ words making his brain hurt and heart stutter, “That’s a lie,” Regulus rolls his eyes, the evidence was the literal baby he had kidnapped…. well saved but schematics… schematics.
But Sirius couldn't find his voice, couldn't push past the suffocating weight of his own fear and doubt. His chest constricted painfully, his breaths coming in short, ragged gasps as panic tightened its grip around him.
“What- what…. do you MEAN?!” Sirius accuses, pointing at his brother, with familiar rage that had Regulus instantly retreating behind his masks.
This Sirius was one he was more used to.
“Alright, enough,” Bianca snaps, her eyes angry as she took in the scene in front of her.
“Sirius you will be taking a calming draught.” She demands, her eyes flashing white in her anger.
Sirius goes to argue and ends up getting clapped on the upside of his head by a very annoyed Dragel. Regulus had to purse his lips against the amusement he found in that. “You will be taking a calming draught. And you will be taking a shower. You stink.” She deadpans.
Regulus was laughing hysterically in his head at the horrified look Sirius gives her.
Because he wouldn’t laugh out loud. Not if he didn’t want to get punched in the face by an embarrassed elder brother.
“I do not!” Sirius gasps in outrage and both Bianca and him look incredulously at the man, who blushes in his response.
“Okay fine,” Sirius mumbles and then makes his way upstairs, before whirling back and pointing at Bianca and Regulus, accusingly.
“I want to know everything!” He demands, and Regulus simply allows his Oretta to bark orders at his elder brother who blanches and scurries back upstairs.
“Where is Harry?” Bianca hisses, “I need some time with the baby or I will go insane,” She snaps, handing Regulus a bottle of blood from her expanding purse, while she drank from her own, to take off the feral edge on her sanity.
She’d figured out just how adorably shy her student was and to her amusement, her student absolutely refused to drink blood from her own neck.
So she drained her blood and put it in a muggle water bottle so the whole process didn’t insult her student’s delicate sensibilities.
She couldn’t wait until she saw the faces of Regulus’ future bonded when he told them he wanted to drink their blood from a cup.
The thought has her cackling, which has Regulus staring at her wary.
“He’s in the kitchen with Mother and Kreacher. He’s having chicken.” Regulus tells her and Bianca makes a sort of squealing hum that Regulus has no clue how she managed. He watches his Oretta positively skip into the kitchen like the short, deadly woman she was.
“Harryyyyyy….” She sings and dances into the room, picking up one of the chicken legs on the table and planting a kiss on the baby’s head.
“Etta!!” Harry greets Regulus’ Oretta with a large gummy baby smile. Harry was on his a high chair, kicking his legs back and forth as Kreacher continued to refresh Harry’s plate with food, that the malnourished baby desperately needed.
"Thank you," Harry grins up at Kreacher, whose eyes were already shining suspiciously. Regulus sighed, of all the things that could turn the deranged Black head elf into a crying mess, it just had to be the menace of a baby Potter.
"How did you sleep, Harry?" Bianca asks, sitting down beside Harry and waving her hand to put her fluffy blonde curls into a huge bun on the top of her head.
She looked rather insane, if Regulus was to judge.
But he wasn’t.
Because he wasn’t suicidal.
He sits beside his Oretta, drinking the blood in the bottle Bianca had given him. It was her own blood and she still had some of his own donated blood in the bottle she was still drinking from, in addition to the food on the table.
The whole blood thing was really strange to him and Regulus was still not used to how tasty he found it.
He was feeling more like a vampire than a Dragel lately.
"A big stwawbewwy ate me," Harry answers Bianca through a mouthful of chicken and salad.
Regulus looks up from his drink at Harry’s statement, a bit baffled. He raises a brow at the comment and he holds back a chuckle when Bianca squints at Harry as if she was unsure what to do with him. She was genuinely perplexed.
Bianca blinks a little, "I see,” She answers Harry but Regulus was almost 100% sure she actually didn’t, but like bloody hell was he going to be the one to bring that up.
Regulus preferred life after all.
“Are you okay? Was the nightmare scary?” Bianca asks, trying to connect to her -well technically Harry was her sort of grandchild now.
"No, I like stwawbewwies,” Harry beams at her, so proud of himself.
Regulus struggles not to bite Harry’s cheek at how adorable he was being.
“And- and then there was a unicown and the unicown twied to take my blankie and Reggie fwom me but I became a ninja and kicked their bum bums,” Harry continues his story and Regulus was grinning in actual delight now.
“Thank you for saving me, love,” Regulus’ eyes soften as they stared at Harry who beams at him.
“You is welcome!”
“You are welcome, darling,” His Oretta corrects gently, already as used to the process as Regulus was.
It was a while later when Sirius stumbles into the kitchen, “Reggie! You better explain everything to me!” Sirius was yelling at him as he rushed down the stairs and hurried into the kitchen, excited to hear what was going on.
His hair, once disheveled and unkempt, was now neatly combed back, framing his face in a way that seemed to accentuate the brightness of his eyes. He moved with a newfound energy, his much steps lighter and more confident than before. The pallor that had once plagued his complexion had faded a little, replaced now by a healthy flush that spoke of how warm he was.
Bianca had a couple potions prepared to help Sirius’ malnourished state and Regulus had told Kreacher to prepare some potions that would help Sirius deal wth the after-effects of what the Dementors had done to him.
Sirius strolls inside, almost falling on his face from how disoriented he was.
“Sirius,” His mother sighs, staring at her son amused at his actions. Walburga's eyes were soft. She hadn't seen her son in years. It was a relief to see him safe and sound at home finally.
“Oh, mother, hello,” Sirius tells her, greeting her with the wariness one needed to have when speaking to Walburga Black.
Sirius’ eyes dart over the kitchen and Regulus’ amusement increases when his brother’s gaze fly over the wide green curious stare sitting a couple feet below eye-level.
Regulus watches with a grin as Sirius does a double take.
“Who? HARRY!?” Sirius screeches almost flying over to where the baby was, his eyes drinking in the sight of his godson, who suddenly had a grumpy look on his face that scared Regulus into thinking Harry was seconds from a temper tantrum.
“How did you know?” Sirus demands at Regulus suddenly, and Regulus sits up straighter, instantly feeling like he doused him in cold water.
Regulus blinks at Sirius, a tad confused and a lot concerned.
“Know what Sirius?” Regulus asks, forcing himself to be relaxed so that Sirius would suspect that he knew whatever the bloody hell Sirius was actually referencing. Reverse psychology as the muggles would have said.
Sirius snaps, “Don’t fucking play with me Regulus,” Sirius was red in his anger now, thinking Regulus was joking around. “How did you know Harry was your son!?”