Ravens and Badgers
All that Albert wanted was one normal year at Hogwarts.
That was clearly asking for too much as was evident of the last six years. It was as if Merlin, Lady Magic, and maybe the school itself were conspiring against him. Every year had been met with some kind of major scandal or disaster that Albert couldn’t believe had actually been allowed to happen. That was also excluding the revolving door that was the Defense Against the Dark Arts position.
The last professor had actually died on school grounds.
It was a general consensus amongst Ravenclaw House that the position was cursed. But whenever they brought it up the issue was waved away. What did they know? They were children arguing against adults. It was clear that the adults were in the right.
The Headmaster had been especially evasive on the matter and that irked Albert.
So, Albert focused on his studies and tried to be a normal student in a very abnormal situation.
That plan was also unraveled, and Albert had three people to thank for that one.
Corvus Black, Fiona Clearwater, and himself.
It had all started to go awry the moment he had knocked on that compartment door. He was met with a wide-eyed girl with blazing blue eyes and golden blonde hair. Albert had been a naïve little boy and his mother said to always be kind. So, he had made it his mission to befriend this lonely girl.
That had been his first mistake.
The girl had introduced herself as Fiona Clearwater, hugged him, and quickly pulled him into a conversation about magical duels.
Albert listened to the rather one-sided conversation while his mind wandered. He recognized her name from one of the books about pureblood society (he had read every book he could get his hands on concerning magic). The Clearwater family was a minor family that leaned firmly towards the light. His father had said that they were “of minor consequence in the grand scheme of things” and then started to list out all of their faults.
Albert had made sure to listen and then do his own research to fact check his father’s opinions. They were mostly biased and a little mean but generally truthful.
His father also didn’t realize the irony in his statements as their own family wasn’t dissimilar.
The House of Churchill was rather famous in the muggle world, but in the wizarding world they were on the lower echelons of society. They weren’t an ancient house nor part of the Sacred Twenty-Eight. They weren’t a pureblood family, more half-bloods than anything else.
They were however a noble house. His father continues to boast about that fact and Albert was truly tired of hearing it. He made the mistake of mentioning that fact to his new best friend (her words not his) and she of course had to ask.
Yes, to the wizarding world the Churchills were the “Noble House of Churchill”.
Yes, that did mean that his father was technically a lord in the eyes of the wizarding world.
No, they did not have a seat in the Wizengamot (his father constantly lamented over that fact).
No, they were not related to the Queen.
Yes, he did grow up at Blenheim Palace and was related to Winston Churchill.
No, Winston Churchill was not magical.
Fiona had moved to ask another question, but they were thankfully interrupted by someone knocking on the compartment door. Albert had immediately taken up the chance to get someone to distract Clearwater with.
That had been his second mistake.
The boy was wearing some of the best and most expensive looking clothes that Albert had ever seen. His uniform seemed to be made out of the finest cloth and instead of the regular vest he had on a black waist coat that had shiny black buttons. His robes were made out of the finest silks and Albert was sure that his mouth was hanging open a little.
This boy must be from a pureblood family. There was no way that anyone else would have this much money to spend on clothes. Right behind the boy was a smaller girl that also had what looked like very expensive clothing. Both of their uniforms just looked better compared to everyone else. They also looked similar in the face, even if their features weren’t identical. Siblings?
“Hello! I’m Fiona Clearwater and this is my friend Albert Churchill! Who are you two?”
“I’m Corvus Black an-”
Albert vaguely heard girl’s name being Andromeda. His mind had screeched to a halt at the mention of their last name.
Black.
His father had drilled into his head the importance of the “Most Ancient and Noble House of Black”. They were, by his father’s words, the richest and most powerful family in Magical Britain. One of the headmasters of Hogwarts had been a Black. They were influential members of the Wizengamot and leaders of the Dark faction.
The Churchills were a Grey family through and through but dabbled in the darker arts.
His father had told him to “cozy up” to the Black daughters. His mother had ended the conversation at that point by smacking the back of his father’s head. She pointed out that the Blacks only married other purebloods and the Churchills were certainly not purebloods.
His father could be rather thickheaded at times.
Albert was pulled from his thoughts when he heard his name mentioned.
“Have you read about the latest duel in the papers Albert?”
Clearwater had a slightly manic grin on her face and Albert noticed that she was practically glued to his side.
“No, I haven’t unfortunately, did something happen?” Albert said while trying and failing to scoot away from her.
Clearwater looked at him like he had just committed some great crime. There was some chuckling as Clearwater took out a copy of the Daily Prophet and shoved it into his hands. It appeared to be between a member of the Wizengamot and a Norwegian wizard. The reporter had managed to catch rather exciting part of the duel between Lord Potter and a Mr. Haroldson.
“Oh, you should have been there Fiona. Its so much more intense in person.” Corvus Black said with a gleam in his eyes.
“You were there?!”
It was at that point that to Clearwater, Albert and Andromeda didn’t even exist. She pestered Corvus Black about the duel and had dragged him over to their side of the compartment and demanded to know all the details. The boy didn’t seem at all bothered by the manhandling and quickly jumped into a retelling with wild hand gestures.
Albert quickly left for the other side of the compartment to avoid getting hit and joined Andromeda. She wasn’t as open as her cousin and seemed a tad awkward.
Well, his mother always did say to be kind and his father would probably have a stroke if he learned that Albert didn’t take the chance to talk to members of the Black family.
“How long do you think the two of them will go at it?”
He offered her a small smile and he got a shy smile and a faint blush in return.
“Knowing Corvus, he could go on for hours about dueling.”
“You don’t find it exciting?”
“Uh, its really something that Corvus or my sister would be interested in.”
“You have a sister too? My little sister’s name is Diana.”
“Her name’s Bellatrix, she’s a third year.”
“Do you think you’ll be in the same house as her?”
“Yeah, I mean… yes, I think I will be. What about you?”
“I think Ravenclaw. My mother always said I would be a Ravenclaw.”
“Really? Now all we need is a Gryffindor and we’ll have the full set!” Clearwater proclaimed loudly.
Both of them must have looked confused because Corvus stepped in to elaborate.
“Fiona says she’s going to be a Hufflepuff, I’m going to be a Slytherin, and with you being fairly certain about Ravenclaw all we’re missing is a Gryffindor.”
“Wouldn’t it be great! We could be the Four Musketeers!”
It was at that point that they were interrupted by someone knocking on the compartment door. It opened a moment later to reveal a girl with rather wild hair and a pretty face. She wasn’t a first year, so Albert was a little confused as to why she was in the first-year section.
“Andy come on; we need to talk.”
Albert assumed that this was Bellatrix and became positive at Corvus’ words.
“Hello to you too Bellatrix. You’re not going to greet your favorite cousin?”
“Come now Corvus, you know that Reg is my favorite.”
“You wound me with your words my lady. How will I ever be able to put the pieces of my broken heart back together?”
Corvus had said the words with a swooning voice and a blank expression. Both him and Bellatrix stared at one another before they both broke out manic grins and were laughing.
“But really, Reg is your favorite?”
“You know who my favorite is. Now come on Andy.”
With that Bellatrix Black left their compartment with Andromeda in tow. They were left in relative silence that Corvus broke.
“It doesn’t sound right you know.”
“What doesn’t sound right?”
“Four Musketeers. Now Three Musketeers has a nice ring to it.”
Corvus looked at both Albert and Fiona. Albert shrugged, it did kind of sound better.
“That wouldn’t really work if we wanted one person from each of the houses.” Albert pointed out.
“You’re right. Ah, we don’t need the Gryffindor. The three of us here will be perfect, one of each house and all in the same year.”
Corvus Black had got a look in his eyes that Albert would years later come to dread. He didn’t know what had been started in that compartment until it was too late.
“Three Musketeers doesn’t sound that cool though.” Fiona was apparently fully on board with whatever they were talking about.
“Really?”
“Yeah, it needs to be more wizardy.”
“I don’t think that’s a wor-”
“That’s beside the point Albert, we need a cooler name! Let me think. Golden Trio? No, that would mess the timeline. Hogwarts Three? Nah, sounds like something a Gryffindor would come up with. What about The Snake, The Badger, and The Raven?”
“That just sounds like the name of a pub.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right Fiona. Uh, you got any ideas Albert?”
Albert hadn’t really been thinking about any group names and scrambled for the first thing he thought about for a group of three important people.
“Uh, how about Triumvirate. It was a group made of three important people that worked together. Like what we’re doing?”
“Yes! That’s it Albert. Its Latin and sounds cool. I can see it now, the Triumvirate. Corvus Black, Fiona Clearwater, and Albert Churchill taking over Hogwarts. This is going to be great!”
Albert didn’t know what he was agreeing to, but Fiona was on board, and it felt wrong to not to join so Albert agreed as well.
That had been his third mistake.
Life at Hogwarts was chaotic.
Albert’s attempts at a normal year at Hogwarts always ended in failure. Granted, he had stopped trying halfway through his second year when the Triumvirate had really started to mean something.
Corvus had called a meeting at six in the morning and explained his “master plan”.
From that point on Albert had only himself to blame for the scandals and controversies that plagued his “normal year”.
So, looking back. Albert was pretty surprised when his seventh year so far wasn’t met by any major scandals. All of their plots and businesses were operating normally, and it looked like it would be smooth sailing into graduation.
(That of course was excluding Sirius Black and his sorting. It wasn’t related to the Triumvirate, so it didn’t count.)
Albert was in the Great Hall by seven for his normal cup of tea and basked in the relative silence. It was Sunday and only a couple of other people were in present. The Quidditch teams were all at practice and everyone else was sleeping in.
It was peaceful.
He had only gotten through a single page of the Daily Prophet before the peace was shattered.
“Good morning!”
Albert didn’t bother looking up from his reading. He wasn’t a morning person and didn’t become sociable until he had finished his morning cup of tea.
He had yet to finish his cup of tea.
A certain Hufflepuff knew all of this but seemed to conveniently forget every time they had this encounter. Albert suspected she did this to spite him.
He refused to yield and promptly ignored her.
It was seven in the morning on a Sunday! He woke up early to have some peace and quiet.
“Do you think he’s serious about it?”
Albert refused to be dragged into a conversation. Fiona took a seat right next to him on the bench and sat entirely too close. There were only six other people sitting at the Ravenclaw table and they were all in the fifth-year section. The rest of the table (seventh-year section included) was empty, but this is where she decided to sit?
He continued to ignore her.
“You really aren’t curious about it at all?”
Fiona got her own cup of tea and Albert watched with one eye as she proceeded to add six sugar cubes. That wasn’t even tea at this point, more watered-down sugar. He watched as she downed half of the cup in one go. He suppressed a shiver and returned his gaze to his reading and took a sip of his tea.
“To think that Corvus would be the first of us to find true love.”
She was practically swooning and leaned against Albert with a sigh.
Was she serious? Corvus was many things, but a love struct fool was not one of them.
“And to do it in such a fashion! In front of the entire student body. Proclaiming his unending love and adoration for the red-haired goddess that is Lily Evans. The Snake and the Lion, joined in holy matrimo-”
Albert threw back the rest of his tea and slammed cup back into its porcelain saucer.
“Please tell me you do not actually believe that.”
“No need to fret my dear Romeo, your Juliet is but a stargaze away.”
“I don’t even want to know.”
“But it has been ordained by the heavens Albert. The next that you gaze at the stars will you find your one true love.”
Sometimes Albert wondered if the Black madness was contagious.
“We’re getting off topic. The rumors between those two are not true you know.”
“Were you not in the Great Hall that day?”
“I was prese-”
“Did you not see the fair maid being offered the finest arcomantula silk handkerchief available?”
“That was an artificially conjured handkerch-”
“There were hundreds of witnesses! Everyone saw the blush that graced her cheeks and the love in his gaze.”
“Fiona, I think you’re forgetting one important fact. Corvus is a Black and last time I checked; Lily Evans was still a muggleborn.”
“But true love knows no bounds.”
“Politics does however.”
Fiona huffed at that, and Albert watched as she got herself another cup of tea and completely ruin it with sugar.
As much as Fiona was a romantic, it was clear that Corvus was up to something. There was no way that Corvus would pursue someone who was seven years his junior. No matter how pretty those green eyes were or how red her hair was.
There was also the fact that the “Most Ancient and Noble House of Black” had suffered one enormous hit to its reputation in the form of Sirius Black and his sorting. Albert was surprised that the boy wasn’t disowned the moment he had been sorted with the lions. The fact that he was brazenly consorting with families that were so staunchly of the light did not help his case.
Andromeda Black was also in a relationship with Edward Tonks. Though that was a more private affair it was going to get out and she was going to get disowned. Corvus said that they must shield the couple from the rest of the student body.
That was sort of a success.
Fiona had pranced around Hogwarts when the “Pureblood Princess and her shining muggleborn knight” finally got together and shared their “first midnight kiss”. That certainly didn’t help the operation’s covert nature.
Albert didn’t really care about those two. Tonks wasn’t the smartest of the Ravens, but he did have his moments. There was the whole house unity thing, but that was more wishful thinking. Only the Hufflepuffs truly had each other’s backs.
So, with all that. There was no way that Corvus would willingly throw more fuel on the fire unless there was a reason.
This was a plot of some kind. He could feel it in his bones.
There was a sinking feeling in his stomach and Albert knew that he was more than likely going to be dragged into it.
His normal seventh year was as good as gone.