Snakes and Lions
Corvus made his way to lunch with a plan scratching at the back of his head. The start of the Spring term was three days ago and to say that the Yule holiday was awkward was an understatement. Sirius had been sorted into Gryffindor and every single family dinner had been filled with either backhanded compliments or outright insults. Aunt Walburga’s lecturing, and cursing had never been more intense and Corvus had to drag little Regulus out of the room several times less the boy get caught in the cross fire.
It was during those moments that he thanked Merlin (it had taken him five years to kick the habit of saying God) that he was the son of Alphard instead of Orion or Cygnus.
Making his way towards the Slytherin table at a leisurely pace Corvus was able to assess his targets.
Target Number One was sitting with a couple of her year mates and facing the Ravenclaw table. Andromeda really needed to be more subtle about her ogling, her gaze would routinely flick towards the Ravenclaw table as if the boy would disappear if she didn’t check up on him ever thirty seconds.
Target Number Two was the reason this plan was tickling the back of his brain.
Tonks was an okay wizard, and he did have a certain look about him. He currently had his face in book and was missing both his and Andromeda’s looks. Was he someone worth being disowned over? Maybe. Corvus had come into this world not wanting to care about anything and had ended up caring about all his cousins. The Black family in general also left much to be desired and collective therapy would probably do them all some good.
Targets Number Three and Four were sitting at the Gryffindor table.
Sirius was chatting with Potter, Lupin, and Pettigrew like he hadn’t just almost been disowned and blasted off the family tapestry (that had been a particularly violent day and it had taken both Corvus and Alphard to convince Old Arcturus to not blast Sirius off the tapestry). Sirius said something that had Potter turning red and looking away from Evans to start a poking war with Sirius.
Speaking of Target Number Four, Evans was sitting with what looked like the rest of the Gryffindor first year girls chatting about something. She really did have bright green eyes and Corvus could understand why Potter and Snape had fought for her attention.
A head of white entered his field of view and Corvus looked down (thank Fate for the good genetics) and was met with Lucius Malfoy looking at him with a somewhat annoyed face that he quickly hid. Narcissa was sitting next to him and looked between the two of them with some apprehension.
(Corvus had quickly established that he was someone not to be messed with while also putting on the act of having a touch more of the Black madness than most. He channeled Bellatrix for the evil cackling he would do to scare the firsties with and quickly solidified the reputation he was aiming for. Adding some shows of powerful magic here and there was just the cherry on top.)
Malfoy started to fidget and Corvus realized he hadn’t said anything for a while and was just staring at Malfoy. Death was cackling in the background, and he made sure to ignore her, he’d get her back later.
“Cissy, family meeting right now.” Corvus said over Malfoy’s shoulder after about forty seconds of staring.
Corvus didn’t wait for a response and made his way to Andromeda and one pointed look later had several seats around Andromeda empty. He was going to miss this power he had over the other Hogwarts students.
“Alright Andy, Cissy I need your help. Timeline depends on it.”
Both Andromeda and Narcissa made no reaction to his referencing the timeline, he had been talking about it for years and everyone had chalked it up to Black madness and he was grateful for that since he could vent in front of people and not seem too weird.
“Okay?”
“Of course.”
Narcissa had always readily agreed to help him concerning the timeline and that was why she was his favorite cousin. It also helped that he was always there for her when they were younger so she would always be there for him.
“Andy, I need you to flip this.”
Corvus took out a galleon and tossed it to her. She failed to catch it and scrambled for it lest it fall off the table.
“Are you going to explain the reason for this cousin?”
“Come on Andy you know that’s not how it works. When has flipping a coin ever been a bad thing before?”
He sent a look at Narcissa, and she flushed and looked away. He had stumbled upon a pretty intense snogging session between Narcissa and Malfoy during her fourth year and decided whether or not to hold it over them by having Malfoy flip a coin. He got lucky that it landed on heads instead of tails, but the two of them would turn red whenever Corvus brought up coinage.
Andromeda was not in the know for that particular story and cast a suspicious look between the two of them.
“Just flip it Andy or Corvy will never get on with it.” Narcissa said while kicking him under the table.
“Just for that I’ll tell her the third-year story.”
“We agreed to never speak of that again.” Narcissa hissed as she turned redder by the second.
“You agreed to never speak of it. I made no such promises, for the sake of the timeline you see.”
“Andy just flip the damn coin!”
Andromeda nearly flinched at Narcissa’s words and hastily flipped the coin. It soared into the air and bounced into the table and landed on heads. Both of them looked at Corvus in expectation, or more excitement in Narcissa’s part and more wary on Andromeda’s. He never really interacted with Andromeda, always either spending time with Bellatrix or Narcissa. Former because she was a damn good duelist and the latter since she was surprisingly fun and was more like Sirius than anyone realized.
Corvus heaved a sigh and took out his wand and charmed the area around the three of them so that no one on the outside would hear a word. They were already getting odd looks and if the plan went right the Hogwarts rumor mill would be spinning so fast it would burst into flames.
“Before I do this, I need to know one thing. Do you love him?”
Andromeda did flinch at that and paled slightly. Narcissa looked between the two of them before firmly looking at Andromeda. Corvus still wasn’t one hundred percent sure on Narcissa’s views on ‘mudbloods’ so this might backfire like crazy.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Corvus made a face at that and Narcissa sighed.
“Andy, I think both of us and probably half of the girls in Slytherin know about you and Tonks. For a Slytherin you’re not that subtle.” Narcissa said with a raised brow.
Andromeda sputtered and Corvus snorted as she tried to deny it while quickly turning red.
“Andy it’s a simple yes or no. I need to know if I should give you some head cover.”
“Head cover?”
“Just yes or no.”
Andromeda fidgeted in her seat and looked down at her hands. Narcissa sent him a questioning look and he mouthed “later” to her.
“And if I said yes?”
She almost whispered and Corvus almost sighed at how prejudiced the Black family could be. He tried to tone the blood supremacy down a bit but hadn’t got far if this was still Andromeda’s reaction.
“Andy you’re my cousin and while we may not be as close to each other like I am with Bella and Cissy you’re still family. Now is that yes a question or an answer?”
Andromeda looked over at Narcissa and received a nod before answering.
“Yes.”
“Alright I’m doing this to soften the inevitable blow that will come down when you decide to marry the man. I can’t promise you’ll not get disowned, but I can promise that you won’t be completely ostracized.”
Corvus looked at Narcissa and received a nod in return. He wouldn’t be the only one in Andromeda’s corner, good to note.
“This also might blowup in my face completely so don’t hold your breath.”
“What are yo-”
“Don’t worry, no one will be talking about you and Tonks after this.”
With that Corvus got up and left a confused Andromeda and a wary and supportive Narcissa. He was glad that Andromeda had Narcissa in her corner, it made things lot easier in the long term.
He made his way away from the Slytherin table and towards the Gryffindor one at a most leisurely pace. Hands in his pockets so that his robes billowed out behind him and a wicked grin on his face made an imposing image.
He gained the look he was going for as all attention was slowly focused on him and the whispering started.
“Why’s he walking like that?”
“That’s Corvus Black you idiot.”
“It looks like he’s heading towards the Gryffindor table.”
“Five galleons this is about Black’s sorting.”
“There’s more than one Black at Hogwarts?”
“Do you live under a rock? Yes, there’s more than one Black at Hogwarts.”
“You don’t have to be mean about it.”
“Would you guys shut up he’s made it to the Gryffindor table.”
“Alright I see it. He is kinda hot.”
“In your dreams, he’s a seventh year and you’re a third.”
Corvus ambled down towards the first years and watched as all the color slowly drained from Sirius’ face. He kept the grin on his face as he stopped right next to Target Number Four. Nearly everybody was watching unabashed and Corvus saw several people lean in.
Evans was looking right at him with confusion written on her face. Right, she probably didn’t know the importance of the Black family yet.
The pure-bloods and half-bloods all backed away while all the muggleborns looked confused and asked their neighbors what was going on.
“Miss Evans?”
He might have made his voice a little deeper than necessary, but it still made several firsties flinch away. It only made his grin even wider.
“Yes?” Evans squeaked out.
“Mind if we have a little chat, our mutual friend Severus wanted me to introduce myself.”
He was complete bullshitting here but first year Severus wasn’t going to contradict him.
“You’re friends with Sev? Well then any friend of Sev is a friend of mine.”
Evans immediately perked up at the mention of Severus and popped off her seat at his gesture.
“Oh yes he wanted me to tell you all about some of the spells you’ll be learning.”
He shot a handkerchief out the end of his wand and handed it to Evans.
Her eyes lit up at the mention of new magic and the conjured handkerchief. She hung off his every word as they made their way out of the Great Hall.
With his back turned Corvus didn’t see the gobsmacked expression on Sirius’ face, his eleven-year-old mind clearly blown that a member of his family would willingly associate with muggleborn. The rest of Gryffindor was in an equal state of shock and were staring at backs of Corvus and Evans.
At the Slytherin table, one Severus Snape was receiving several calculating looks. Everyone had heard the entire conversation between Black and Evans and now Severus was getting approving looks from some of the upperclassmen. His fellow first years were looking at him mixtures of awe and confusion. Why would Corvus Black befriend a firstie, let alone two of them?
Severus himself didn’t notice any of the looks as his gaze followed Lily with worry as she left the Great Hall with Black.
Andromeda watched her cousin leave with the first year with wide eyes and her mouth hanging open. Her mind was racing at what she had just seen.
“Was that a pink handkerchief?”
“What’s Black doing hanging out with a mudblood?”
“I’ll take my five galleons.”
Narcissa had to smother a grin as she watched Corvus walk out with the first year. This would definitely take all the attention away from any other rumor at Hogwarts.
“He gave her a handkerchief.”
Narcissa looked towards Andromeda who whispered the words.
“Yes, he did.”
“But that could be considered a-”
“Yes, it could.”
Andromeda fell into shocked silence once again Narcissa looked around the Great Hall as filled back up with noise at the fresh gossip. She didn’t know fully what Corvus was planning but it clearly was important enough to concern the timeline, so it was important to Narcissa too.
Even if she didn’t truly believe in the timeline.