Cassiopeia Black I
The old witch had been quite annoyed when her brother had informed her that the tutoring of the new heir had to wait.
His grandson had apparently made it clear that the two-year-old was too young to have lessons.
A blasphemy if she’s ever heard one.
She had no other choice but to occupy her time with gathering some new juicy information in Bulgaria, it was truly a wonder how some liquor could loosen the tongue of even the tightest lipped of politician. But blackmailing and gallivanting the world had grown boring these recent years, her favourite pastime wasn’t that much fun anymore. She needed a challenge.
The new heir that Arcturus had acquired had proved to be exactly what she needed.
A little toddler that practically reeked of magic, it was tantalizing.
It was a pity that you couldn’t give a three-year-old a wand, no matter that he would be four in a couple of months. The boy would be able to rule the world after she was done with him. It was a pity that he lived with two Gryffindors who would surely manage to instil some sense of chivalry in the boy. Cassiopeia would have snatched him and gone to south America with him if she thought that she could get away with it. Arcturus would surely not appreciate the kidnapping of his heir, he had always been a dry bastard.
The little wizard was currently sitting and putting together an enchanted puzzle, the pieces could be put together by feeling the magic of each piece. It was something that most adults struggled with as it required the ability to manipulate your own core and thus your magic itself. Cassiopeia had been a bit wary with letting her pupil try it, he was yet very young, and she knew that Arcturus wouldn’t approve. Controlling your magic could be very dangerous and that was why it was mostly lords who had the ability to do it without shattering. They had no choice put learn in order to become patriarchs.
The green-eyes boy had been marvellous this far, his eyes sparkled with glee as he managed to put pieces together correctly.
The child was truly remarkable.
But only when he himself wanted to. The witch had noticed that the boy was as stubborn as a mule, he only put an effort in things that he found amusing. He liked to challenge Cassiopeia at every turn, it made her happy that she had decided upon staying away from having her own children.
They are pests no matter how powerful the are
The door was suddenly thrown open.
Cassiopeia Black drew her wand and stood between the heir and the intruder, ready to maim.
The sight of a frazzled great-nephew made her frown and lower her wand. Sirius walked past her directly to the little boy who was smiling brightly at his godfather. The man picked the boy up and cradled him reverently in his arms, his shoulders shaking from his heavy breathing. Cassiopeia looked at the man and boy in confusion.
“Sirius?” a voice said, the werewolf was standing by the door frame.
Sirius ran his hand through Harry’s hair and kissed the boy’s temple. The sight warmed the hardened heart of the witch. Cassiopeia smiled softly and turned to the werewolf.
“I think we should give them a moment”
Remus Lupin nodded hesitantly, clearly worried about his friend.
The pair of them made their way downstairs, the man prepared some tea while Cassiopeia sat down on one of the sofas in the sitting room. She readily accepted the cup of tea, an herbal blend she had bought in India, she had taught Remus Lupin how to prepare it properly her first day coming here.
“What happened?” Cassiopeia asked, her gaze set on the man. Lupin massaged his temple and shook his head. “I don’t know, he left the house less than an hour ago and came back like that”
Cassiopeia tilted her head and tried to think of any reason for the other man’s distress.
“He stalked up the stairs like a man possessed” Lupin mumbled into his own cup of tea.
They didn’t get to say anything more before the fireplace light up as her brother emerged from it. His grey eyes found her own brown ones and she could see that he was upset by the lines on his forehead. Little Archie had always wanted to seem more composed than what he was.
“Where is he?” the lord asked briskly. Remus Lupin looked at her as if expecting her to be the one answering, she lifted her eyebrows at the assumption. He sighed. “He’s upstairs with Harry, he’s visibly upset so we’re waiting for him to calm down. What are you doing here?”
Arcturus sneered in annoyance and took a seat.
Cassiopeia recognised the way he tilted his head, her brother was exasperated.
“Tell us what you know” Cassiopeia demanded with a gleam in her eyes.
Her brother pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.
“I was in Diagon alley when I heard someone speak of an altercation between my grandson and the headmaster of Hogwarts” Arcturus said.
The witch blinked in thought, curious about what said altercation was about. She had of course heard from Arcturus that it was the headmaster who had placed the boy with muggles and that he had been one of those responsible for chucking Sirius into Azkaban sans trial. But she also knew that Sirius and the werewolf had belonged to the little bird society that Dumbledore had formed. Cassiopeia had without any troubles secured every member’s name, they all had their own place in her book. One never knew when it could come in handy.
“Brother dear, why didn’t you tell me that you’ve started listening to gossip? I have quite a lot of it to share” Cassiopeia said with a grin.
Arcturus rolled his eyes at her. “You can keep your gossip Cassiopeia”
Cassiopeia saw Lupin look between the two with wary eyes.
“Wolf, be a dear and fetch him. I’m getting quite curious here” the witch said with a sweet smile.
It looked like the werewolf was trying to gnaw through his teeth.
“That won’t be necessary”
The three people looked to the door frame where the man of the hour stood.
“Harry fell asleep. We will have to talk about what kind of assignments you give him auntie, it’s not even lunch and he was exhausted – don’t think I didn’t recognise that puzzle for what it was”
Cassiopeia studied her nails; she had forgotten to put it away thanks to Sirius bursting into the room.
“My assignments are just fine” she said crisply.
Sirius went to answer but stooped when he saw the sharp look Arcturus was giving him. The young man took a seat beside Lupin on the sofa.
“Explain” Arcturus commanded.
Sirius sighed in defeat. “Dumbledore wanted to talk about Harry” he paused and drew a deep breath “I didn’t like what he said so I made that clear”
Arcturus looked unimpressed.
“You will have to be more thorough than that boy. I would like to know why people think that house Black have declared blood feud on the Dumbledore family”
Cassiopeia gasped in shock, blood feud. Her eyes shone as she looked at her great nephew in a new light. She had always known that he had guts, but she would never have though him capable to declare a blood feud, and one on Albus Dumbledore of all people!
Sirius sputtered in indignation. “I didn’t declare any blood feud!”
“Then what happened Sirius?” Lupin asked though his teeth, it was amusing to see the otherwise calm man stressed.
Cassiopeia narrowed her eyes in thought.
“He was being a bloody bastard, that’s all!”
Silence filled the room.
“Explain” Arcturus growled, Cassiopeia had to wonder how he managed to create such an animalistic tint to his voice.
The young man stood up from the sofa and started to walk back and forth with his hands buried in his hair.
“He wanted me to send Harry back to those monsters all under the pretence of it aiding some blood protection that Lily supposedly created. He believes that Voldemort isn’t dead and that I’m willingly endangering my godson by not letting him be bloody abused”
Blood protection?
“What kind of blood protection” Cassiopeia asked with a frown. Sirius furrowed his eyebrows. “He believes that Lily enacted a protection at her death that then stopped the killing curse”
Cassiopeia gaped.
A blood ritual.
The old witch wanted to throttle herself for not having thought about that earlier, that was one area of magic that had escaped her mind because how could one believe that a Potter would have resorted to such a foolish thing, not even a Black would have endangered themselves or their heir by such foul magic. It obliterated every other of Cassiopeia’s theories on how the boy survived and the dark lord died.
Blood rituals was based on exceedingly dark magic. Very dark and very illegal, it was in fact outlawed since the time of Merlin. Blood rituals had one thing in common, they were all based on life forces without any set formula for them. Each ritual was different as they were based on intent, magic, and life.
“Do you think that James’s wife would have been able to do such a thing?” The witch asked with apprehension, she felt Arcturus watching her intently. She had always been one for knowing the most obscure facts.
“She loved him more than anything, so yes”
Cassiopeia closed her eyes in horror.
“What are you thinking Cassiopeia?” Arcturus asked with concern lacing his voice. Everyone was now looking at her.
“I’m relieved that the foolish witch didn’t taint the boy, I have tested his core myself and it is untouched”
“You have what?”
“She was not foolish!”
The younger men spoke at the same time, Cassiopeia smirked and turned to answer the werewolf first.
“It was a minor cleansing ritual together with one to measure his magical capacity”
Remus Lupin looked at her in outrage, the werewolf showed his true colours by snarling furiously.
“He’s been through enough rituals already, do something like that without our knowledge again and I swear you’ll regret it” The werewolf said with narrowed eyes, the rest of the people in the room watched the predator warily. Even her great nephew seemed perplexed by his friend’s hostility.
“Remus, it’s alright. They are not dangerous” Sirius said with a soft voice. Lupin snorted at his words. Sirius turned towards Cassiopeia with fire in his eyes.
“Lily was a brilliant witch and she saved her son, the ritual can’t have been that bad if it saved a life”
Cassiopeia rolled her eyes at the naive boy. “It is only luck that the boy didn’t die in the backlash of the magic, you have no understanding of the kind of magic the mudblood tried boy. It is the foulest sort there is, the kind of things one could to with such magic is incredible but too risky. One should not dabble in magic concerning blood and life, it could twist the practitioners’ own core for it is a crime against magic itself. Not even Grindelwald would have tried the kind of magic this young witch thought her capable of controlling”