If Memories Could Bleed

1960.

Thirty eight years in the past, a girl was born not knowing the strange occurrences of which that had befallen her, the loop in time she had incidentally committed. See, the issue with travelling backwards in time is not the changing of events or seeing the double of yourself like so many cautioned when using things such as time-turners, but is in fact the return to the present. Nothing is ever set soundly in stone— past, future or present. Time is fluid, always changing and rearranging itself with each decision made and choice crossed.

Hence with the black magic used on her future person, Hermione Granger had take the first step into causing the commonly dubbed ripple effect. Where her present changed the past unknowingly and created an alternate loop, which when sending her back destroyed all pre-conceived notions of the future. The travelling backwards in time was not the issue, as a person or things very presence in the past changes many things unconsciously— someone orders coffee instead of tea, chooses to take the long way to work rather than the short. It is the coming back that causes the displacement of events, as the future you come to return to could very well no longer exist, the people you once knew no longer being the same.

Time was fluid, as previously stated, though very few witches and wizards could testify and identify this fact, it was simply a estimation— a heavily reasoned batch of guesswork to their best understanding. It was for this reason that time-turners were so closely watched in all Ministries of Magic and the Global Confederation of Wizards. Admittedly, it also played a minuscule roll in the Statute of Secrecy, and why it was written into the very pages of such an important document. This of course only became important when an unsanctioned time traveller incidentally killed her own family and destroyed her own  existence in her previous timeline.

The thirty-second amendment to the rights of secrecy states, "...the right of all magical beings when time traveling are not exempt to the laws of secrecy to nullify disturbances to the scared timeline," Though many wizards and witches familiar with the amendments in the rights of secrecy are also aware of the thinly written clause beneath it, "... should the timeline falter with the unforeseen disturbances with the appearance of an individual in time, the individual at fault is therefore prohibited to return to their own time and is therefore placed under the jurisdiction of amendment twelve." Amendment twelve however, was simply the rights of secrecy to their own being and person, and the ability to refuse veritiserum under the rules of timelines and illicit time-travelling.

Hermione Granger of the future, of course, had no knowledge of such things, upon her displacement to a past timeline regarding the black magic used on her person. No, the witch in question was not at all different to any other baby born in such a time, except the mind-boggling fact that she was as far from a normal Wizarding baby as possible.

Hermione Granger cried loudly as a baby when coming into the world, her mind at first being far too sharp and aware with the new surroundings that screamed danger. She had wept like all new babes did until placed in her mother's arms it was in that instant while, snuggled into her new-mother's sweat soaked chest that her mind filled to that of a newborn babe. With nothing but sounds and touch being registered around her.

The dark magic used many years in the future was locked away in the deepest confines of her mind. She didn't know her name was Hermione Granger, that she had lived through a war and fought on the frontlines. The witch had no clue at all about what she had and would do in the face of adversary, or anything at all that has made her the infamous Hermione Granger, Brightest Witch of her Age. She was a blank sheet of parchment, awaiting to be written on and become a wholly new person. In those few moments of time, everything has reshaped itself for the arrival of a new child, that was never supposed to be.

There was no Harry Potter dying from the Dark Lord in this timeline, there was no Hermione Granger to be born to a pair of Muggle dentists in the 1980s. In fact, there was no Hermione Granger to be born at all. Just a soul of a person not yet born placed into that of a newborn baby with all her experiences compartmentalized into the furthest reaches of her mind. Guarded even from herself until the Black Magic deemed them useful and the correct time to be acknowledged.

Hermione Granger had died in 1998, only to be brought back to life thirty-eight years in the past unknowingly to a woman who was never supposed to bear a child.

She was born on December 4th 1960 to a woman who had never wanted children, who had never planned to be a mother, in the coldest night the Wizarding World had ever seen. The Magical Hospital in France had nearly been shut down due to the cold snap that had their wards fizzling with magic to keep itself afloat. It was by luck and chance itself that Cassiopeia Black had been able to deliver her magical child at all that cold night, since the hospital had been seconds from locking their doors and proclaiming defeat against the storm.

The baby had been born premature by three months—, small, sickly and screaming bloody murder upon her arrival. Cassiopeia had never been one with children, always being more focused on her work and doing her part to better the Wizarding community. As chance would have it, she had been careless in her pursuit of a wealthy, Pureblooded French Bureaucrat and incidentally been gifted by magic his child only weeks before he passed by an accidental spell experiment.

Cassiopeia had been stubborn in her refusal to hold the child, even after the painstaking hours she had been forced to ensue when ridding the child from her uterus entirely. She wanted nothing to do with the sickly thing, she had no time or want for a child, but the nursemaid had refused her disagreements and dropped her on her chest, gooey and warm as it screamed and cried for the entire maternity ward to hear.

Cassiopeia Black would deny it to her dying breath, but something had changed in that moment, with the small and feeble child of red painted skin from stress pushed onto her chest. The warmth that had flowed in her very bones and blood felt euphoric as she stared at the crying baby. It had her dark hair, already feathers f around her face and the small chin of her now deceased lover.

Cassiopeia had wanted to give her away, had wanted to push all the responsibilities that came with child rearing far from her person but the child—, her small and sickly child, changed that instant. She knew immediately that she could never hand off such a beautiful gift from magic, her little miracle child who was never supposed to be. It didn't matter that she was sick and could die in a few days from her own sensibilities. This child was undoubtedly and unquestionably hers, her own baby girl.

Screaming loud enough to start a ringing in her ears, Cassiopeia slowly let her arms loosen around the wailing child, slowly caressing the still wet black hair on her head as she mumbled nonsensical's to the outraged babe. It was the sound of her voice that eventually calmed the child enough to stop its endless wails and cries.

Cassiopeia made many foolish promises that night to her recently born child. Promises of safety and health if she promised to live to see the next full moon, promises of a life worth living and all she could ever want. She would raise her as a Black Lady but without the responsibility, she would give her autonomy and allow her to choose her life— a thing so many noble woman of high station had been refused. And while Cassiopeia talked to her baby girl she told the witches in the ward the same thing—that the baby was hers and that she would not be leaving her that day or any of the following if she had a choice.

December 4th was the day that Cassiopeia Black became a mother, and likewise she made her first and most importance choice. She choose her child over all she had been raised to be— she was the start of the new timeline and the new life for the once known Hermione Granger.

Cassiopeia Black knew nothing of being a mother, as she hadn't really known her own all too well having been born in the most Ancient and Noble House of Black she was raised by house elves more often than not. Her mother had never been the coddling type, and she refused to subject her child to such a neglected life. For that reason she had chosen to remain in France and raise her baby girl, away from the pressures of their family name and the nagging and nitpicking of her cousins and siblings. They already had far to much to say in their letters about her choices in lifestyle.

She had already forgone the ridiculous naming succession, though only in part. Cassiopeia had hated her own name as a child, far too long and stuffy for a dark haired 'wild child' as her favourite sibling Alphard, had commonly stated. She insisted on the surname being Black, as the last name of her late father would hardly be appropriate or kind to her with the anonymity surrounding his death.

Cassiopeia had often stated he fiddled around far too much dark magic to be healthy, but she had loved him. Even if said love was a mere tablespoon compared to the gallons she had for their child. She missed him of course, in the way he challenged her mind and offered her interesting banter, but never more. She was happy to have her child all to herself, even if she was clueless on where to start.

She had chosen Adeline, purely out of her own selfishness of heart. It was the name of her closest friend growing up before she was caught in the crossfire of dark witches and wizards. Cassiopeia often wondered what her oldest and dearest friend would have thought of such circumstances..., she likely would have laughed manically at the thought of Cassiopeia being a mother.

To keep some sensibility to tradition she gave her the middle name of Delphinus, despite hating the Aunt for which had it as her first. Though the said Aunt was as pleased as punch and even gifted her a house elf in a show of good faith— the said elf was more than happy to work for Cassiopeia and help care for the newborn child, the latest Black Heiress.

The move to France had been far easier than expected, as Cassiopeia used her family inherited funds to purchase a small plot of land in the country side of Rhone Alps, not too far from Lyon. There she hired many architects to build her newest family member a home worthy of their station. It wasn't the sprawling house that was the Black Manor she had grown up in, or the squished and magically expanded living comforts of Grimmauld, but quaint and tidy.

She had paid the architects double their fees to get it ready in a months time as she stayed in the hospital far longer than expected. Her little Adeline has been far sicker than most premature baby's, with her lungs being fully developed, her immune system was quite fragile. Especially when incidentally catching a cold from the nurse maids that nearly placed her on death row. Cassiopeia had raged for hours on the nurses, giving a  live show on how unruly a Black's temper truly could be.

Even little Adeline's heart was far smaller than it should have been— Cassiopeia had been fretting for hours after the news, despite the doctors and specialists claiming it was all easily treatable with the right potions. She had thrown more galleons than her father would have liked to keep her baby healthy, and it was for that reason that her little Adeline found herself becoming much better in days rather than months. It seemed only fitting that the day their home was fully complete that little Adeline was allowed to go home for the first time since her birth.

"Welcome home, mon petit soleil*," Cassiopeia cooed softly to the bundle of blankets in her arms as the wide eyed baby wrapped inside them stared at her mother curiously. The newly made mother carefully walked the stone walk to the freshly painted white doors of their new home.

Despite having only been made and created in a months time the place was fully furnished and the gardens and landscaping already bordering on perfection with the neatly trimmed hedges and rows of flower beds under the large bay windows at the front. The house was a wash of white and greys, nothing like the colourings of the Black Family Manor which were burgundy and charcoal grey. The only bit of colour besides the blooming beds of blue and yellow flowers were the navy shutters along the second and third floor bedrooms. Cassiopeia had never been longing for luxury, hence the simplicity of her home, but she has been raised with it so there were certain things she could not go without.

"Maman* had this place made just for you," she continued to prattle on despite knowing her child had no sense of what she was saying at all. It made her feel less alone however and it seemed to offer some semblance of comfort to her baby girl. Cassiopeia had learned early on that hearing her mother's voice often soothed her constant crying in the middle of the nights.

Cassiopeia firstly carried her child towards the patio doors off to the left of the home were a small gated garden was in the works, with rows upon rows of magical plants, herbs and spices to be used in her potioneering practice. With her unable to work for the time being she knew it better to make a steady income from the comforts of her home until both her and Adeline were settled in. Besides, she had always had a knack at the subject in school.

"There's the gardens that you will help me prune for potions," she mentioned as she purposely pointed out a few of her favorites such as Nightshade and Moonlace. Cassiopeia refused to have her daughter deplorable at her gifted subject in school. She didn't have to be perfect at it but getting a head start to it could only do her better in the long run.

Adeline pulled on the smallest of her mother's dainty fingers and cooed softly like a sigh. Cassiopeia couldn't help but smile at the action before bringing her inside to view the rest of the home. She wandered though many rooms pointing out the living room and dining areas, and even the spare bedrooms and her brewing rooms. Cassiopeia had made it clear to the baby that she was not to go into the brewing room without her, even when she was older. Perhaps, it was a little early on to worry about such things but Cassiopeia refused to be negligent in her rules, and the brewing room would be dangerous especially when she was experimenting.

"Here is the kitchen that Mipsy will cook in," Cassiopeia introduced simply as she pointed out the white coloured cupboards and the small house elf she had named to the little newborn. Said elf had been washing the dishes from her prep for dinner, but soon stopped her scrubbing to curtesy respectfully.

Cassiopeia added on to her previous statement after acknowledging the house elf brightly, "Despite the elf refusing my help in the kitchens, I'm sure we can both learn a many things from her."

Mipsy had scolded 'Mistress Cassi' on her impudence and stated swiftly that 'no Mistress of House Black should be cooking in their homes!' The elf then shooed them both from the room which had the woman chuckling lightly, at the young and rambunctious elf. It was no wonder why her Aunt Delphinis had sent her, as it was obvious that the said elf was good at following the norms of most magical servants.

She then journeyed to the second floor after showing the tea parlour to the slowly dissatisfied baby, to one of the three last rooms in the house. Cassiopeia had simply opened the door to the massive library filled with many of her own private collections and a few other tomes from her own vaults and the Black Manor. Despite, the library being Cassiopeia's favourite addition to the house she doubted a month old baby would find it all that amusing. Therefore, she mostly skipped its own tour in favour of going to the bedroom down the hall and nearly adjacent to her own.

"The library I'm sure you will love once you are old enough to start your lessons and begin your education as a Lady of House Black," Adeline had squawked at the words which brought an adoring smirk to her mother's face as she sighed. "I know, I know— but I promise you mon petit soleil* you will have far better tutors than I ever had."

She opened the door across from hers, taking in the sights for the first time as well of the nursery she had concocted in favour of her little girl. It was simple in the ways of Wizarding Nursery's but elegant all the same for an aristocratic pureblood. The walls were a light, barely white periwinkle blue, with a white wardrobe, crib, change table and rocking chair. The cushions of the chair and the sheets in the crib were of a navy colouring and patterned with constellations.  Cassiopeia may not have been fond of the constellation naming of her family but she had always loved the stories in mythology and would hate for her daughter to feel excluded from their family despite, how maddening they could be.

She had bewitched the ceiling to mirror the night sky, fillies with the many stars and constellations, but the mobile above her crib was a series of white plush animals, one in the shape of a badger, the other a serpent, a lion and then lastly a raven. The interior designers had thought her silly when choosing the animals but she knew them to be the ones for her little Adeline. She might not attend Hogwarts but she would know their houses at the very least so she could easily manoeuvre her way into the British commonwealths politics. 

"This is your room mon petit soleil*," Cassiopeia softly stated as she let the wide eyed baby stare around at all the finishing touches. Unable to stop herself, Cassiopeia began to ramble once more about her own childhood. "I had always hated the colour pink that your Grand-mère* had dressed me in as a child, perhaps you will enjoy the blues as much as I do."

Taking a slow breath she let her one arm, brush again the soft blanket that had been hand sewn from one of the house elves. It was beautifully embroidered with her daughters name, and was of the softest materials in the colours of blue and silver. She let out a sigh before speaking once again to her child, "Of course, you'll be staying with me for now. You're far too little and small to be on your own just yet."

Adeline pulled on her finger once more and Cassiopeia was suddenly hit with the urge to cry, her eyes feeling wet and beginning to burn and her chest feeling tight and seconds from bursting. It was a side effect from her pregnancy, all her jumbled emotions that seemed to wax and wane in the utmost of extremes. She hated it more than she hated the pain that had filled her abdomen and given her stretch marks on her sides— it was unfitting for a lady to burst into tears at any second of the day for no reason at all.

Stuffing her sudden bout of tears as far down as she could, Cassiopeia let the pads of her fingertips brush the little whisps of curling black hair from her daughters round head as she uttered softly in the otherwise quiet home. "It's just you and I, mon petit soleil*. Just us and our little home in the Alps."

As if her daughter could feel her own sudden sadness, Adeline soon began to sob and cry out as she tried to stuff her face straight into her mother's green silk robes. Despite the crying, Cassiopeia was soon chuckling at her daughters antics, as she couldn't help but remark while going to sit in the rocking chair.

"You'll drain me dry sooner or later you know, mon petit soleil*." That seemed to be the wrong response to her needy daughter as she started to cry even louder, intermixing it with wails of pain as she clawed at her mother's chest in the hopes of sustenance.

One thing Cassiopeia had learned quickly with her daughter was that when she was hungry, she was starved and she was quite enraged when things weren't going to her exact specifications. This including the time she had to wait for her mother's breast milk, or when she wasn't changed out her dirtied nappies soon enough in her preference. She was a fickle and demanding little baby, but Cassiopeia couldn't find it in herself to be upset with the little girl and her neediness. At least not yet... perhaps once the sleepless nights and tantrums began she would think differently.

"You're only a month old and already you have my infamous temper," Cassiopeia snipped playfully at her child as she easily undid the front of her robes and let her baby suckle to her hearts content on her breast. She further mused while her baby drank her fill.

"It seems the Black genetics are already at work," she hummed thoughtfully as she played with her daughters little curls and slowly took in all her features that were slowly coming to life for neither the first nor the last time.

"You have my hair, though with your uncle Alphard's ringlets." She mumbled with a hit of a grin as she arrogantly stated, "You'll have the most beautiful of hair, mon petit soleil*. With your father's chin and my eyes you'll be the most beautiful of the Black's."

At that thought she couldn't help but chuckle at the look on her sister-in-law's face when she came to know the truth. That her young Adeline was undoubtedly going to become a beautiful witch, a perfect addition to the Black family tapestry.

"I'm sure Druella will be quite upset with that," Cassiopeia mused with a smirk before adding more in reasoning than anything else to her seemingly starved daughter. "She always thought her three daughters to be the most stunning of the Black heirs. Little Cissy with her platinum hair and clear blue eyes, or Cousin Andy with her silver eyes and chocolate hair of righteous locks."

Thinking of her nieces left Cassiopeia feeling a tad more prideful at her own creation. There were in their own rights beautiful girls with bright futures but she didn't know how they could compare in looks to her own daughter. Perhaps, it was her own biases that placed Adeline leagues above them or maybe it was because she knew that her child would not be cursed with the inbreed madness that had often found homes in their familia lines. There was a chance of course, but a small one at that, seeing as her own lover had been out of the country and his family had spat on all ideals of inbreeding to keep lines pure.

Picturing little Narcissa with her big and wonder filled eyes as she followed around he eldest sister like a little doll, pulled tightly at Cassiopeia's chest. It felt cruel to know that she would never give Adeline a sibling to pass the days with. Thoughts of two of the three infamous Black sisters however had the elder witch thinking to the middle sister of the three.

"Bellatrix, well, that child has always been a little wild, much like her looks." She summed up for her daughter. Cassiopeia watched her daughters eyes slowly become heavy as she fed with much less rigour than before.

"Stunning of course, they all are but you, mon petit soleil*," She paused for a moment as she lamented with both pride and fear at her next words. Cassiopeia was prideful of her beautiful daughter but terrified at what it could mean in the years to come. Pretty girls hardly ever got a pretty life to go with them. "—you will be forever breaking hearts I'm sure."

With Adeline lazily drinking at this point, barely doing more that gum at her now starting ache nipples, Cassiopeia knew that soon her little girl would be ready to sleep. Before she went to lay her down in the bassinet in her bedroom however, she had a few things to speak of to her ever-listening child in the hopes that some of the thoughts and questions would linger until she was old enough to understand and make sense of them.

"I made you a promise to never force you into marriage like my cousin and sister, and I stand by that promise ma petite fille*," She quickly stated with a sigh, as she stared adoringly at her hazily drinking newborn. Even milk-drunk Adeline had the most clear and stunning silver-grey eyes. "–but, if you could refuse my sister and cousin's son, I would be most appreciative."

"Sirius is only a month older than you but already I can sense the trouble he will stir." She added thinking of the small infant she had been regaled with stories via many owl letters in the past few months. All of them detailing the mischief and grief he had caused both Walburga and Orion. In Cassiopeia's mind she had always wondered why her parents would ever think that they were a suitable match for one another— both suffering with horrific tempers and no patience to rule breaking.

"He has already done accidental magic," Cassiopeia spoke to her newborn disapprovingly but in awe all the same. He would be powerful, that was certain, but by no means did she want her daughter to incidentally gain his bad habits already.

"Young Sirius turned Orion's moustache purple in a fit of rage over a dirty nappy not even two weeks ago. A charming babe really, mi amor*..." She trailed off suddenly at a horrible thought of her own child doing that. It didn't matter how much she adored her clingy and temperamental little girl, she would not stand for such silly magic in her home or on her person. Cassiopeia was a Lady of House Black, she had no time for such foolishness.

With a weak glare she sniffed haughtily at her nearly napping child. "If you even think of changing my hair colour I will ground you, young lady. Despite you not even being two months."

Adeline didn't even glance at her mother's change in tone and simply yawned quietly in her mother's breast as she nuzzled into the sounds of her mother's steady heartbeat and slowly began to nod off. Thinking it best to call an end to their tour of the home, Cassiopeia carefully re-clothed herself, tying the front of her robe and spoke simply to her nearly sleeping newborn. 

"I'll cease my senseless rambling for now darling. You'll forgive your mother, won't you?" She hummed thoughtlessly as she repositioned her baby in her arms to a more comfortable one and stated slowly as she walked with grace and purpose towards her bedroom. "I'll show you my bedroom and there we can rest for a while."

Adeline did nothing more than coo in her mother's arms as she senselessly spoke to herself when tucking her little girl into her cot on the woven basket next to her bed. "Mipsy will wake us for dinner I'm sure... if you don't wail the walls down first."

The youngest Black Heiress however, did not hear such a taunt as she was already deep into the realm of Morpheus. Demeaning of things that most newborns did and not of past events she could not recall or the darkness that was yet to appear and darken her thoughts. Adeline slept fitfully in her bassinet until early the next morning where she did wake the entire home with her cries. Just like in her past as Hermione Granger, Adeline Black was never a patient child— especially in the early mornings.