The main story
« … The magic's rebirth shall begin when two of the same blood bear a child. She is destined to be the first Black Lady in history, finally remembering that purity carries no weight as we all have red in our veins.
The berserk with the war in mind, the vampire who lost heart, the veela with numbing beauty, the phoenix who was forgotten, the hellhound with stolen freedom, and the basilisk who drifted away – once those six beings reunite, the wave of changes shall start … »
If you are a member of the noble House of Black, there is a high chance you heard this story at least once. How Apollonia Black hundred years ago, happened to be a witness of the prophecy by a seer concerning their family's future. As with many things in the history of the Magic World, the word-for-word retelling got lost with time, which is unsurprising since by the end of her life, Apollonia got delirious and accidentally drank poison, killing herself. But one thing is known for a fact – the girl will be born who's destined to become the first Lady of the noble House Black in the history of such a patriarchal bloodline, and once she takes her title, the blood purity of their family will come to an end.
Most of the members of this family considered the prophecy story just that – a story of an insane woman. But whenever their kids turned eleven, this lingering anxiety was in the air. Every time a pure-blood child reaches said age, the parents are supposed to visit the heart of the house and show them a family tree tapestry with every relative ever known to the world. If a child were deemed an heir or heiress by the family magic, their image on the tapestry would have a slight golden glow for a boy or a silver glow for a girl along the edge. And every wizard with even a drop of Black's blood was waiting with a bated breath to see a silver glow, the unspoken sign of doom.
When Walburga gave birth to her first child, she didn't bat an eye on it. The woman refused to believe even the slightest possibility of the prophecy existing and didn't even check the tapestry once Alsephina turned eleven. So when the time came to show Sirius, her second child, the heart of the house with the family tree tapestry, Walburga stayed certain there was a golden glow waiting for them. What she didn't expect, though, was the brightest silver glow she'd ever seen gracing her daughter's image with bold «Alsephina Lucrecia Black» silently mocking the woman. Walburga's first reaction was to rub her eyes and turn to Orion with the question on the tip of her tongue. But the minute she saw his shocked expression, it was like being hit over the head with a club. It is true. The alleged prophesy everyone thought to be a simple rumbling of an insane woman turned out to be accurate, and her daughter will be the end of their pure-blood family. When Orion looked her in the eyes, it felt like they could read each other's thoughts for a second, exclaiming simultaneously: «Forget-me-not curse!»
Nobody knows how they came into possession of knowledge so horrible, and in Walburga's lifetime, there was never an incident that permitted the use of this curse. Only the thing is, due to the nature of the curse, even if someone was outcasted in such a brutal manner, she wouldn't've known unless the person who cast the spell died, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. Although the Black family is notorious for disowning every squib and muggle rights supporter, they had the misfortune to consider a relative, sometimes simply burning their images from the family tapestry was not enough. While squibs were harmless, some of the muggle supporters tried to spew their horrendous ideas about the equality of every blood status, representing the Black family in a negative light. In cases of individuals like this, the only available decision was to cast a Forget-me-not curse, hiding everything there was to know about this person. Their image and name entirely disappeared from the family tapestry; every memory about this person and each encounter with them was suppressed to the deepest corners of everybody's minds, wiping this person from the face of the Earth. And if they stumbled upon a witch or wizard by some miracle, they felt a strong aversion towards magic. At least one good thing is that only the Lord of the noble House of Black can cast this curse, leaving them as the last individual to remember the vanished person. The curse can be broken only with the death of the Lord, but most of the time, it is too late.
By the end of the day that once was a happy celebration of Sirius's eleventh birthday, Walburga and Orion Black were known to have two sons, while a muggle orphanage in Cokeworth, England saw the addition of the thirteen years old girl named Petunia, who remembered nothing about herself. The only reason they knew her age and name was a note in her pocket, left here by Orion out of pity for a child he once considered his.