FicWad

Chapter Seven: Black Surprises

Harry

“Happy Bloody Christmas.” I couldn’t help but murmur to myself. Can you hear the sarcasm in it? As you can probably guess, I was not in the best of moods. But honestly, could you blame me? Just two days before Christmas, I find myself sitting in a room at the Gringotts Estates and Will Department with very little to be happy and thankful for, short of my life.

Six months after Sirius’s death and his will is now finally being read. Thank you Goblin Nation for your fast, reliable, and sensitive service. Just open the wounds back up why don’t you. Hey. Has anyone got any salt they would like to add to this train wreck that happens to be my life? You know what, let’s take that back. Let’s not tempt fate.

Remus’s enhanced hearing must had heard my murmurings since he responded with a sad smile. I had been seeing a lot of that smile lately, mainly in regards to my self. It was either that waning smile or a worried frown. I guess he hadn’t quite gotten used to my new outlook on life. Hopefully, he’ll get over it. It is a known fact that time and war changes people and I’m no exception.

Well actually, if you want to get technical, it’s not as much of a change as more of a reawakening. Entering the Wizarding World and seeing these people who knew and respected my parents while being relatively kind to me caused me to break some of my own rules. Rules that I knew worked and had worked for me for eleven years. And what did I break them for? Acceptance. Acceptance that I would get from people who had known my parents. My parents. Acceptance and continued kindness from some of the first few people who showed me kindness. I have learned plenty of lessons since being here, but one of the hardest to learn and the one that hurts the most is that acceptance is fleeting and isn’t worth shit if it’s not unconditional. You will never be able to please everyone. Then there is also the realization of the fact that I may never gain unconditional acceptance, which makes me angrier than I want to admit. In this never-ending quest for acceptance, I suppressed parts of myself. I trusted them and let myself be an open book. I allowed myself to care too much and where did it all lead me?

I am a survivor and always have been. I grew up with the Dursley’s. I had to sneak. I had to steal. I had to manipulate and talk my way out of things. I had to plot. I had to be two steps ahead. I had to show little or no reaction to their actions. Doing anything else would just let them know what hurt the most and edge them on. As I said, I am a survivor and the hat knew it too. But in the quest of acceptance and wanting to be as dissimilar to Voldemort as possible…well I guess we shall say that the rest is history even though I could personally give a hoot now about any specific Hogwart’s house. You have good people and assholes in every single one.

For example, Slytherin appeared to be going through a lot of changes after Malfoy’s shocking death. They tried to keep it under wraps, but their first years hadn’t yet learned how to keep their mouths shut. It appears there was some back and forth between Zabini and Nott for about the first two months of term before Zabini emerged victorious and Nott ended up in Madame Pomfrey’s care for a week. As for Slytherin under the Zabini reign, there was nothing negative I could say about it. Matter of fact, some of the people seemed lighter or freer. There wasn’t as much bullying, but if you decided to cross them, all bets were off. As for Zabini himself, he didn’t strut down the hall or show that he was the house leader in any visible way. He was quiet, cordial, and acknowledged your existence. If he saw me in the halls, he would give me a curt nod and I usually returned the favor. That’s more than I can say for Malfoy. However, his relationship with Snape took a nosedive, probably due to him having to keep up appearances for Death Muncher sympathizers. I don’t know who gets insulted more now, him or me. But Zabini takes the derisive comments and detentions with indifference and poise, more than I can say for myself at times. However, I’m beginning to rein it in due to fact that it is just not productive. There is no incentive at all in letting people know what makes you tick no matter how good it may feel at the time to put them in their place.

Leaving the Dursley’s, I let myself become an open book with hopes of coming into the world with a clean slate; that the magical world would be fundamentally different in this regard. That was a major mistake considering so much of this world is bogged down and continues to be bogged down with the past, even more so than the muggle world. And you can probably guess how good that turned out since I knew next to nothing about my past with the exception of what someone told me out of the kindness or malice of their hearts. Then to add injury to insult I let myself get dragged into this reverence of the past trying to unwittingly conform to the ways of parents who I know next to nothing about. It is almost sickening to look back on it now. All someone had to say was ‘your parents would… Lily believed…James would…’ and they had me whether it was insult or compliment. My desperation was damned near out there for the world to see and damned if some of them didn’t use it. Dumbledore is a fucking professional in his exploitation of my ignorance even if that wasn’t his intent.

Let’s not get me started on Dumbledore. I can barely talk about him out loud without going into expletives. Sixteen years on this Earth. Five years in his immediate presence at Hogwarts and it took a Ministry invasion for him to finally reveal that there was a prophecy hanging over my head. His explanation; he wanted me to have a normal childhood. Bullshit, the Dursley’s never constituted a normal childhood and my life has been at risk almost all five of the years I’ve been at Hogwarts. Thinking on it now, I technically can’t trust the blood ward on Privet Drive as far as I could throw considering that Voldemort has my blood. All this time wasted; I could have been training to fight. The Horcruxes could have been hunted for with less peril. We had the advantage of time and it was wasted.

Don’t get me wrong, Dumbledore has done some great things and I still respect him, but too many decisions have been made and too many things have been omitted for things to go back the way they were, especially since most directly affected me. I know I can’t blame the Department of Mysteries fiasco solely on him, but he did get the ball started with him holding everything too close to the vest. The other players in this group disaster are Sirius for his inability to take the duel seriously, and Bellatrix and Voldemort respectively for obvious reasons. Last but not least there was my part in this. I was a boy trying to play a man’s game and lacked skill in more ways than one. I also would have worked harder if I would have been given a better explanation for needing to learn Occumency.

However, there is no use in wallowing and complaining about things that have been done already been. All you can do is learn from these lessons and move on. And that is what I have been doing with the first task being to take my head out of my arse and learn more about the world around me. Not just relying on information given to me, but really coming to my own conclusions from observation and research of my own.

And what I have I learned from all this careful observation and research?

I’ve learned that we are probably going to lose this damn war if things don’t change and change as soon as possible. I’ve learned that there is more to this war than Dumbledore supporters, Ministry supporters, and Voldemort supporters. I’ve learned that there are some people that fundamentally disagree with certain ideologies of all three sides and therefore choose not to support any rather than just sheer cowardice as thought by the Order. I’ve learned that the reverence held for Dumbledore within the Order and the Wizarding World in general is quite dangerous and I do not desire any similar worship for myself in future despite knowing how easy it would be for me to gain. The groupthink within the Order scares me in regards to Dumbledore. Very few people are willing to disagree with him and if they do, the remainder of the group will wear that person down until he eventually falls in line. In the end, Dumbledore’s word is practically law. I’ve also come to the realization that this is my fight much to the dismay of myself and the others should they find out about the prophecy.

Even if the prophecy is utter bullshit, Voldemort believes it and this is all that matters. Knowing that one day in the future I will have to face down Voldemort, I’ve come to the realization that I am in no ways ready and do not believe that I will ever be ready in time. Dumbledore says that love is my greatest strength. I appreciate the sentiment, but I don’t believe Voldemort is going to spontaneously combust if I walk up to him and hug him. Nor would a stunner take him down. So I have taken it upon myself to start getting ready for this since no else seems to be in that much of a hurry to help me get ready. I have more than learned that knowledge is power and I am therefore taking advantage of Hogwarts library while I still have access to it. I also have taken up running and other physical exercises due to the fact that no matter how good you are with a wand, you will eventually have to dodge or run.

All in all, things will be changing around here. What happened at the Department of Mysteries will not happen again. Not on my watch. Sirius’s death will not be in vain. My parent’s death will not be in vain. I am going to try and do everything in my power to survive.

Before I had a chance to mentally go to places that I wished not to go, my attention was immediately peaked by the entrance of three Goblins, Tonks, and older woman. Tonk’s hair was a dark brown today; I guess to go with the somberness of the occasion. However, with her hair in what I believe is her original color, I was able to see the likeness between her and the older woman leading me to come to the conclusion that woman was Andromeda Tonks nee Black. With a quick greeting to Remus and I, the two witches took their seats and waited for the reading to begin. Apparently, the goblins value their time and chose to go into the proceedings. However, before they could begin another goblin entered and I noticed the other three bowed their head slightly while he nodded in response. Of the three goblins that entered the room together, the older one of the group stepped forward.

“I would like to thank you all for coming to the will and last testament of one Sirius Black. My name is Sageblade and I am the head of Gringotts Will and Estates department. My other colleagues will be introduced momentarily. Before we proceed, let me just make sure that everyone is present.” With that, he pulled out a parchment and started calling names.

“Remus Lupin.”

“Present.” With that, the Sageblade moved down the list and I noticed a frown appeared on his face. In response, he gestured to one of the younger goblins and received a letter in returned that was presented to Mrs. Tonks. “In light of recent events, Mrs. Malfoy communicated to us that she would be unable to attend today’s proceedings and wished that anything bequeathed to the late Mr. Malfoy or her self be placed into your possession until a later date.” If I were to say that my interest wasn’t piqued, it would be a lie. Narcissa Malfoy disappeared three weeks after Malfoy’s death and of course rumors ran rampant in the Prophet. Some believed that she left to mourn her son in private. Some believe that she may in hiding from the Ministry out of fear that they may try to take the Malfoy fortune due to her vulnerability and Lucius Malfoy imprisonment. Some may even believe she may be hiding from Voldemort since with no Malfoy males around; she can not be protected from other tasks he may request of her. I can’t blame her in that regard; the thought almost wants me to bring back up my lunch. Then there are some that believe that she may be dead and committed suicide in the wake of Draco Malfoy’s death. Well, we at least know that she isn’t dead and I couldn’t help be crack a smile at the light that came into Mrs. Tonks eyes at the news. Sometimes it’s hard to remember that they are sisters and they didn’t appear close from the way Tonks tells it. Looking at Remus and Tonks, they seemed just as surprised as I was. Maybe we were wrong. Before I could think on it anymore, I heard my own name being called and I raised a hand in response.

“Nymphadora Tonks.” Tonks nodded gruffly in response. Rolling up his parchment, Sageblade reached for a box sitting on a side table and placed it directly in front of us. Just as he was about to open the box, the late goblin stepped forward to tell Sageblade something in Gobbledygook. Sageblade nodded and stepped off to the side while the new goblin addressed us.

“For those of you who do not know who I am, my name Rangok and I am the President of Gringotts. Before we commence with the reading, I just wanted to let you know that this will not be a usual reading. We at Gringotts pride ourselves at watching over the gold of our customers with the same care that we watch over our own. We try to do everything in our power to make sure that our clients meet their financial goals whatever they may be. Due to Mr. Black’s precarious situation, he was of course unable to attend to his financial duties as he desired. With a flexible staff and secure owl post, we were able work around this difficultly. However, due to the sensitive nature of wills and estates, let alone pureblood will and estates, we needed direct contact of some sort with Mr. Black seeing as the average Pureblood Head of Family checks on the family holdings and updates the will at least three times a year. As you can see, this created a grave problem for Mr. Black. Always trying to find better ways to service our customers, some members of our research and development team sought out to create a secure means for our ill and shut-in wizards and witches to alter their wills and estates as needed without having to step a foot in our branch. Mr. Black volunteered to be our first test subject. Without going into the magical details involved in such an undertaking, we were able to create a mental link using our magics, which more than hold up against Wizarding mind spells including Legilmency and the Imperious curse. In light of a new event, Mr. Black would be able to access and alter his final wishes in minutes.” With those words, he opened the box and pulled a large orb out.

“When hearing of Mr. Black’s death, we had to conduct our own investigation since there was no body and no therefore no certificate of death. We greatly apologize for the inconvenience. If you don’t have any additional questions for myself or our two representatives from the research and development department, Sageblade will continue on with the reading.” I looked around at the others to find them looking around also. Taking this as meaning there were no questions, Sageblade nodded to the two research goblins and they started to chant. Slowly over the course of five minutes the orb began to change from its transparency to a glowing green. At full glow, the goblins stopped their chanting and then we heard a familiar voice come from the orb.

“I, Sirius Black of sound mind and body—Don’t say a word Moony—declare this my last and final testament. In order to stay in this room, I only ask that you shed no tears. The last thing I want is someone blubbering over me. Chances are that I either went out doing something characteristically brave or stupid for someone I love or in proximity of a beautiful woman. Considering my circumstances so far, it’s more than likely the former. But enough of that, lets get on with this and for the record, this is in no particular order. Moony, my brother in all but blood and the last Marauder left, I leave you 15,000 galleons and the cabin in Edinburgh. I only ask to look out for Harry. Hopefully, you’ll be able to be there for him more than I was able to.” I took a quick glance at Remus to see him sitting quite relaxed until I looked at his hands and saw them balled so tightly that they were white on the knuckles.

“Will do Padfoot.”

“Good to know Moony.” And the orb seemed like it flashed a bit pink there for a moment. “Moving on to Nymphadora. Yeah, I saw said it. You can’t hex an orb. I leave you 15,000 galleons and legal binding acknowledgement as a member of the Black Family.” The shock on Tonk’s face was priceless and her mother was a close second. “And the same goes for you Andromeda. As last male Black over the age of majority, the Headship reverts back to me regardless of any previous disinheritance giving me full power to create new judgments and overturn previous ones. Your actions gave me the courage to make my own stand and I am indebted to you for it. Consider this one way of giving my thanks for standing up to the scary people that happen to be our relations.” I could hear almost hear a smile in his voice. I turned to glance at Mrs. Tonk’s and saw tears threatening to fall from her eyes. “Welcome back Andy. In addition, I leave to you 50,000 galleons and the farm house near Cardiff. I know how much you love that house and the fun we used to have there as children.” His voice took on a wistful tone. “All five of us together. The Black Terrors is what the townspeople called us when we blew in for the summer. Those days seem so distant now, but I will always treasure them.” Wait. Five?

“Me too Sirius. Me too.” Mrs. Tonks replied with emotion thick in her voice. Again, the orb flashed pink again and this time I noticed that I was not the only one to see it. It clearly got the attention of one of the research goblins and he started muttering to his partner in Gobbledydook, but the other just waved him off as Sirius voice continued coming out of the orb.

“I guess this brings me to Cissy, my partner in crime figuratively and literally. I have no wish to publicize your business, but I trust all the persons in this room so I am going to say what I have wanted to say for the past few years. Leave Narcissa. Draco is not a baby anymore and I can tell that you mean as much to him as he does to you. What is keeping you? Why do you choose to stay? Lucius is obviously not the man that you married anymore not that I liked the arrogant prick much then. In the beginning, I knew that he loved you and made you happy much to my dismay. However, after the sparse encounters we’ve had over the past two years, you look like a shell of the lively cousin that I know and love. For the second time, he has chosen a megalomaniac over his wife and son. I also hope to the Gods you’re not still trying to wait out for Bella. I told you before the end of the first war that Bella was lost to us. She’s gone. She would just as quickly kill her own cousin and sister as she would a rodent on the ground. So I ask again, what are you waiting for? Voldemort is back and seems more unbalanced than he did last time. Don’t let Lucius take you and Draco down with him.” What the hell? I guess they all were closer than I originally thought even though I had to squash down the rage that came up when he mentioned Bellatrix Lestrange. Crazy Bitch. And the way he had said. If I didn’t know better, I would say that Sirius foresaw his death at her hand or something. Before I could continue on that train of thought however, Sirius voice interrupted my thoughts.

“But there in lies the rub of Draco. No offense to you kid, but you have some hard decisions coming upon you soon and I cannot even attempt to guess where your heart truly lies. You wear your Slytherin mask well. Too well matter of fact. By direct blood, the title of Lord Black belongs to you as the last living male Black. However, I cannot trust you in good conscience because I haven’t gotten the chance to know you. Voldemort has plenty of monetary support from the old families including the Malfoys. But if I have anything to do with it, he will not see one bronze sickle of the Black fortune going towards his cause. You have been surrounded by Lucius’s propaganda for so long, but I know it has also been tempered with your mothers refutes and kindness. This leaves us in quite a pickle. So the only thing I could think of was—” Whatever Sirius was about to say was cut off by Andromeda addressing the goblins.

“Pardon my interruption. But I have two questions before we continue on.” The goblins nodded in response, “For the researchers, what is the nature of Sirius’s intelligence within this orb? Is it just like a recording or something else?”

“I’m Hammerrod by the way. As for your questions Mrs. Tonks, the intelligence and magic work similarly to that of a portrait. An echo of the real person if you will. The orb will respond similarly to how Mr. Black would usually respond.”

“I can hear you guys you know.” Sirius’s voice came out of the orb.

Andromeda nodded in reply glancing at Sageblade. “The second question goes to both you and Hammerrod. In light of recent events, how does this change affect some of decisions Sirius has made?” However, before either of the goblins could answer ‘Sirius’ cut back in.

“What events?” The orb turned pink again and the same goblin that had notice before looked at Hammerrod as if to say ‘Told you so.’

“Well, Sirius…” Remus started, but Sirius interrupted him.

“Spit it out Moony.” He grew silent and the pink color grew in intensity. “What is it? Is someone else dead? Hold on. Who haven’t I heard from? Harry? Are you there? Please tell me you are sitting in that room.” Hearing the fear in his voice shocked me for a moment before Remus nudged me to say something.

“Sirius. I’m here and I’m fine.” I said trying to keep my voice even.

“Good.” He said as he made a sound similar to one releasing a breath of air. “Don’t be so slow on the uptake next time. You almost scared the hell out of me. Okay. Who else haven’t I heard? Dora?”

“I’m here Sirius.” Tonks replied.

“Thank you. Cissy?” Silence permeated the room and I looked over to see Andromeda and Tonks looking at each other as if deciding who was going to give the news. “Cissa? Somebody say something?”

“Narcissa is alive Sirius, but she wasn’t able to make the reading. I believe she is safe.” Andromeda flinched after the words were out of her mouth and I think it is safe to guess that Sirius or his echo at least caught the words used as the orb went to a darker pink that was bordering on purple. I took a quick glance over at the goblins and immediately realized that something was not going right. Hammerrod and his unnamed colleague were speaking rapidly in Gobbledygook with the other goblin gesturing wildly to the orb. Rangok and Sageblade looked like they had just as much problems following the conversation despite it being in the goblin language.

“You believe she’s safe. Don’t tell me that git of a husband has finally crossed the line. Is she okay? Is her son there in her stead? Draco?”

“Umm. Sirius…” Tonks started off in a tone that I rarely hear her use. The uncertainty was palpable in it. “Draco was found dead in September.”

The room was dead silent with the exception of the research goblins arguing. But even they went silent as the orb turned a deep purple and started blinking rather than having a constant glow. I could have sworn I heard one of them murmur the word impossible, however, that it was drowned out by Sirius’s one word response. “Fuck!”

Again, the orb kept blinking purple. “What happened? Who would do that to him? Sure he wasn’t boy of the year, but I know enough to know he didn’t deserve that.”

Remus spoke up. “I agree. Honestly, we don’t know that much more than you actually. Narcissa disappeared three weeks after his funeral and we just found out she was alive today.”

“Lucius?”

“He was in Azkaban when it happened. We don’t even know if he knows or not.”

“Merlin Cissa.” None of us really had anything to say to that. I looked around the room to see the two research goblins looking warily at the orb while Rangok had his head in his hands. After a few seconds of staring, Hammerrod finally stepped towards looking very resigned.

“Mr. Black.”

“Yes.”

“My name is Hammerrod from the research and development department at Gringotts.”

“Yeah, I remember you and your partner Feverspear I believe.”

The unnamed goblin stepped closer to the orb. “You flatter us by remembering our names Lord Black. We have some questions that we hope you can answer for us.”

“Ask on.”

“First question. Can you tell me today’s date?”

“No, I can’t. Everything looks the same here. I can’t tell day from night.”

“Looks the same? So you can see. Do you have the remainder of your senses? Any feelings?” Feverspear nodded to Hammerrod who started to make runic marks around the orb and chant. Halfway through the chant, an almost holographic map of a sort rose up.

“Do I? I’m freezing my arse off. I am so bloody cold it’s ridiculous. However, I have not had the urge to eat or urinate.”

“Can you tell me anything about where you are located?” Feverspear asked as he looked at Hammerrod who was still analyzing the map.

“Located? It’s dark here and I fill like I am floating. I’m dead; how else am I supposed to fell like? I either expected this or some white light with old friends on the other end.” Sirius was starting to sound annoyed.

“Noted. Mr. Black. I thank you for your patience in answering these questions. Two more and we will leave you at peace for the day. When was the very last time you updated your will?”

“I would have to say March of 1996. Why?” I could hear the questions in the voice. His voice. Sirius’s voice.

“We’ll get to that in just one moment. What was the very last thing you remember before the darkness?” Feverspear looked to Hammerrod who nodded his head in response. If I didn’t know better, Hammerrod looked a bit peaky now while Feverspear looked much focused on what Sirius’s response was going to be.

“Falling.” That one word made the blood rush through my ears as pandemonium broke out in the room. I barely heard Sageblade declaring that he would have to declare any information generated from the will null and void until further investigation. I barely heard Remus demanding to know what was going on after sensing the distress of the goblins. I faintly heard Feverspear informing Rangok that he needed to contact the Department of Mysteries as soon as possible. I just felt overall numb when Hammerrod informed Remus that the blinking purple color indicated a response to stimulus and active brain function and processing.