The House of Black

DISCLAIMER: That part of this world and those characters you’ve seen before belong to their Creator: JKR. The rest is mine - although I cannot quit my day job as I make no $$$

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE: THE HOUSE OF BLACK

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 10 th 1993

For Harry, it would be a “quiet” first day. His parents and Sirius were up in the Valley with their guests, which included Professor Lupin. That group would be at the Manor for dinner later. Ginny was currently at the Lake House with her family aside from Percy who seemed uninterested in a week away from school. Hermione was off riding with her Mum while her dad and Mr. Greengrass were at one of the golf courses (Harry was surely going to be as well at least a couple of times during this Holiday). The rest of the Greengrass family was at House Longbottom for the day. Daphne would return for dinner as House Longbottom would also be under time compression and the portal connection would be usable. Hannah and her mother were also out riding. Only Luna was at the Manor (the Tennysons were most likely in the Chamber butchering the dead snake).

Harry walked out to the veranda where Luna said she would be reading a book and she was there in her preferred “green card” attire or rather the lack of any attire whatsoever. It was October in the Trunk as it was outside. Earlier in the week, Harry and the others were told that it had snowed the night before in the mountains, although there was no accumulation on the Valley floor. The “weather” in the Winter Gardens was that of Autumn and could be quite chilly thus Luna’s attire would be entirely too little. But the Veranda and parts of the four newer trunks were tropical and did not experience autumn or winter so where it was tropical it was still warm enough for Luna to wear or not where what she wanted although she had learned to be mindful of the boundaries between Summer and Winter Gardens which were only now becoming obvious with the leaves turning. Earlier the only way to tell was a sudden, noticeable drop in temperature which she said could be a bit of a shock if you were not otherwise paying attention.

“Enjoying yourself?” Harry asked as he sat in a chair next to Luna.

“Oh yes!” she said not looking up from what looked like a letter she was reading. “The weather here is lovely.”

“What’s that?”

“Oh. It’s a letter from Daddy. You know he couldn’t be here this weekend because he’s working on getting the next issue of The Quibbler out. He’s expecting that he may need to double or triple circulation since this issue is the one with his stories ‘bout the Manor Court and our situation here so he’s really busy. Oh. An elf dropped this off for you,” she added handing Harry an envelope.

Harry opened it and read it.

“Um… ,” Harry began.

“What is it Harry?”

“It’s from my Mum.”

“Odd. I mean she does live just down the road as it were and could just come over and talk.”

“Think she wanted to put this in writing so I couldn’t forget.”

“Oh?”

“It’s a revised estimate of her due date seeing as this Time Compression was not in the schedule we discussed after the Manor Court.” With Harry having agreed to allow one day a week in Time Compression for the House Team to use his pitch, he added a second day for family with or without guests. But that new schedule did not include this added week for Sirius and his lost family.

“Really? When is she due now?”

“She’s due in sixty-seven days as of right now. When we return to real time Outside, it will be sixty days which if we continue with the current planned Time Compressions means she’s now due on December 4th - which is a Saturday by the way. It really adds up doesn’t it - these Time Compressions I mean. She was only about two months along when I revived her and that’s less than three months ago Outside.”

“August was a very long month, Harry,” Luna chuckled. “Hermione figured it was a little over a hundred days long.”

“Really? I didn’t think we used that much time.”

“You’re forgetting we were also at the Longbottoms for thirty days.”

“Oh yeah.”

“September was pretty long as well,” Luna said. “Not as long as August, but it does add up. Not that I mind and I’d say with the possible exception of your Mum no one has commented on it.”

“She’s the only one on any kind of clock,” Harry began.

“We are too - us girls I mean. While our monthlies come on Outside time, they run on Total time. But that’s not the same as being pregnant I should think. The Bond seems to be on Outside time I should think seeing as we have had over eight months together.”

“Eight months? Really?”

Luna nodded. “We bonded June 21st which in Outside time was a hundred and twelve days ago. But Inside time included it was two hundred and forty-four days ago…”

“How do you…?”

“I’ve been keeping track. I think most of us are. We’re thinking ‘bout bonding or marriage anniversaries and…”

“What?”

“You have heard of anniversaries, haven’t you?”

“Um… yeah, sort of. I haven’t been thinking ‘bout them.”

“To be honest, neither have I. Not really. But at least some of the others have and the ‘girl debate’ between us now is should it be the calendar date of things or the three hundred sixty-five day date. Calendar is easy seeing as Hermione and I bonded with you June 21st and married you the 22nd and Daphne, Hannah and Ginny followed on the other days. But doing the anniversary thing might be difficult five days in a row for any number of reasons. Hermione suggests the 365 day date with her and I alternating every other ‘year’ or anniversary such that one of us celebrates our anniversary on our bonding date and the other on our wedding date. If we use Inside and Outside time, while it means we need to keep track of such things, it also means there’d be at least a few real days between anniversary dates which might be easier to schedule. Although, if we do that now, those dates would fall during the Spring Term so it might be difficult…”

Harry blinked. “Um… well, just so long as you all agree and let me know when, we’ll work something out. After all, we have the Estate so if we’re in school at the time I’m sure we can figure out ways to do it. It’s not necessary to take you out to a fancy restaurant, is it?”

“Necessary? No. Nor practical all the time,” Luna agreed. “I don’t think anyone was thinking that. Alone time with you and a nice gift, I think that’s what we were thinking about. A nice private dinner and such is what we were thinking about. Maybe a private picnic lunch and dinner? Just a nice day together to let us know you think we are each special.”

“But you are. Each of you is, you know?”

“Even if a girl knows it’s true, it doesn’t mean she doesn’t need or want to hear it or be shown it.”

Harry decided not to complain or anything. “Just let me know what you want and when,” he said. “And don’t hint it.”

“We’ve already figured that hints don’t work so well, Harry,” Luna said. “Daphne thinks it’s a guy thing… not taking hints that is. She says her Dad’s pretty pathetic that way and it’s not ‘cause he doesn’t care. Of course, about some things we’ll still hint. I think that’s a girl thing. But we’ll see to it you can’t forget the important stuff.”

“Um… just let me know when, I suppose.”

“Don’t worry. When we’ve decided we will. Anyway, this Inside / Outside calendar has other uses.”

“Oh?”

“Well, we did get two harvests from the Winter Gardens for some things at least, right? Likewise our summer gardens seem to follow inside time as well.”

“But the trees are only now losing their leaves.”

“We think that part of them is tied either to Outside time or the Inside seasons. But when we more than doubled their summer, they flowered and bore fruit twice. We know, however, that animals are more tied to outside time. Don’t know why. Neville might seeing as he’s so knowledgeable about plants. But animals and humans respond to this differently. As I said, for us girls our monthlies are still tied to Outside time. They progress at Inside time - thankfully - but we think that’s because they can only last so long. Aside from that our other cycles are on outside time and the same’s true for all the animals here. Okay, not all. The baby ones grow and mature on Inside time and pregnancy progresses on Inside time. Hermione thinks it has to do with magical instability and at least some of your Grandfather’s records she’s consulted bear that out. This is important in a way.”

“My mother’s changing due date?”

“That’s the immediate example. But babies and young children are magically unstable. That’s certainly true for witches and wizards and we wonder whether it’s true for Muggles as well. If magical instability is what ties you to Inside time rather than Outside time, that has other consequences.”

“Oh?”

“It’s hard to say what’s truly ‘normal’ here,” Luna began. “We use Time Compression frequently so that we do is our normal. But to what degree varies. Normal June was thirty days. Ours was sixty-five. Normal July was thirty-one days. Ours was thirty eight. Normal August was thirty-one days and ours was over a hundred - counting our stay with the Longbottoms. September has thirty days and ours had forty-three. October for us would’ve been thirty-nine days but will now be forty-six including Outside today’s Time Compression. But so far it’s clear that we get about an extra two weeks a month, assuming we do at least one seven day compression a month and maybe we will and maybe we won’t. Without that extra week, our schedule still adds one week to every month.

“So, we have a magically unstable child as is normal. It will grow physically and magically based upon its total days, not outside days, until it becomes magically stable. When magically stable, it will age and grow based solely on Outside days, but it will learn as we have based upon total days. We’ve looked and can’t say for certain when a child becomes magically stable except to say it’s sometime before they’re old enough to attend Hogwarts. Some sources suggest it’s as early as five or six and others as late as nine or ten. Regardless, a child raised on this estate where Time Compression is used more than occasionally, will be ‘older’ than a child raised strictly outside, right?”

“I suppose,” Harry nodded.

“So when should that child start Hogwarts?” Luna asked somewhat rhetorically. “Should we send them off to school beginning with the fall term after their eleventh outside birthday or should we send them off beginning the fall term after they have lived at least 4,000 days - actually 4,018 days?”

“I hadn’t thought about that.”

“If we average an extra two weeks each month, a child raised here will reach their 4018th day when they’re seven-and-a-half years old in Outside Time. They would be sixteen or older if they started based on their total time.”

“Sixteen?”

Luna nodded. “If they started Hogwarts eleven years after their Outside Birthday - eleven Outside years - they would be intellectually and magically the same as sixteen and that assumes they start when they’re 4,018 days old and not later. After all, Ginny was 4,038 days old when she started. You were 4,049. I was 4,383. If I had spent my whole life under our time compression, I might’ve been close to 6,600 days old when I started or eighteen years old in my time. I think I would’ve stuck out as a Firstie in that case.”

“A bit,” Harry agreed. “But we’re not using Time Compression to that degree…”

“We’ve used it more and we’ve used it less,” Luna replied. “If we stick to our typical schedule and rarely if ever have more than two extra days per week, they still will be only eight-and-a-half by the time they are at least as old as necessary to start school and would be fourteen if we waited. Even if it was only one extra day a week, if we waited until their eleventh Outside birthday, they would be older than Ginny is now before starting. And we know they need to start school around that time for a variety of reasons. So, it’s something we need to take into account and Hogwarts should as well. If they won’t, we will need to start their wand training much earlier than ‘normal,’ right?”

“Are you saying we shouldn’t use Time Compression?”

“No Harry. It has no effect on us as far as we’ve seen or read - aside from giving us more time that is. The effects are on magical instability stuff like pregnancy and very young children, right? We just have to be aware of that.”

Harry nodded. “Well, we can hope that by the time we have to worry about children we no longer need the extra time…”

“That’s true enough for us, but what about others?”

“It doesn’t seem to bother the elves,” Harry began.

“I was thinking of your unborn brother or sister, Harry. You’re not going to ask your parents to move, are you?”

“Not if they don’t want to,” Harry said.

“So, your little brother or sister will be subjected to the effects of Time Compression. They won’t know the difference, but it means they’ll mature earlier magically in Outside Time and we need to be aware of that.”

Harry nodded. “My Mum knows this?”

“I’d be surprised if she hasn’t figured this out for herself,” Luna answered. “But I haven’t spoken to her about it. Maybe one of the others…”

“Does this affect us at all? I mean are we older or something?”

“We have had more time to learn than would be the case, so in that sense we are older, Harry. According to Madam Pomfrey we are not physically older than we should be. We girls are not more developed than we would’ve been. That would’ve been noticed if not by us then by the other girls for certain. Magically? I don’t know. It’s possible we are and possible we’re not.”

“Oh?”

“Well, we were nowhere near magical maturity before the summer but aside from Ginny, we girls were all past bonding age. Even with the Time Compression, we did not have nearly enough new time to reach magical maturity and there’s no real way to tell whether we’re ‘older’ as it were until we reach magical maturity. If we reach it by around 6,300 of our days and much earlier than should be the case Outside, we’ll know it had an effect but we think it won’t work that way.”

“Why not?”

“Two reasons. First, you, Hermione and I are not yet fully bonded. For us it’s been eight months since bonding.”

“Madam Pomfrey said our ages might make it take longer.”

“And it could also be tied to real days just as our monthlies are so by that measure it’s only been a little over three months. Our bonding is no closer than it would’ve been otherwise. That and Ginny’s no closer to her bonding age than she would be without Time Compression.”

“But she wouldn’t be, would she?” Harry asked. “Even without Time Compression, that’s tied to the number of Summer Solstices right?”

“And the number of monthlies,” Luna agreed.

“But she’ll have those by then. She’s had her third already.”

“True. But don’t forget that we girls can enter ‘mentorship’ anytime after we reach our real bonding age and not the legal one. We have to enter it soon after our legal one. Our real bonding age is after our sixth monthly. The boys' real bonding age is after their twelfth summer solstice which happened to you before we used Time Compression together so for now we can’t tell if there’s a difference. If Ginny hits her real bonding age without regard to her monthlies, we’ll then know Inside Time counts. But it’s still too early to tell even with Inside Time.”

“And how will we know that?”

“In many cases you don’t. Not really anyway. There are some girls who suddenly get very, very randy - even more so than when we first begin to enter magical puberty. But most girls wouldn’t notice. It’s one of the reasons we see Madam Pomfrey every month. Once we reach the age where we begin needing intimacy, it’s best not to put it off more than a few months. Basically, if you reach that age before the end of April, you’re assigned to a mentor regardless of when your twelfth solstice occurs. In Ginny’s case now, she’s seeing Madam Pomfrey every thirty of our days or so just to be safe so if she reaches that point sooner than expected, say in the next month or so, we’ll know there’s a connection between that and Time Compression. In reality, it won’t make that much difference except that she’ll enter mentorship and Hermione may change the rules regarding her later intimacy with you.”

“And the rest of you?”

“Daphne and Hannah are on their Outside time schedules. Once we begin our monthlies we all see Madam Pomfrey every month while at school. Hermione and I are on Ginny’s schedule - every thirty of our days or so.”

“Why?”

“That way she can check on the progression of our bonds with you.”

“She hasn’t seen me… yet.”

“It seems it’s much easier to examine the bonds in girls than boys. Don’t ask me why.”

“And… um… where are we?”

“As of our last check, we’re about where she’d expect us to be at this time.”

“Is that with or without Time Compression?”

“She thinks without. She’s not certain ‘cause we’re so young and because there’s two bonds at work and not just one so we may be where we are because of all the Time Compression. The important thing is she hasn’t seen any reason for concern.”

“So Time Compression may or may not be having an effect on us?”

“That’s right, Harry. We just don’t know and can’t know right now, it seems. The more important change is if that changes when we - or more importantly when you reach magical maturity. If that happens much sooner than expected, we’ll know that magical maturation is not tied to Outside Time.”

Harry nodded. “Whether that - magical maturity that is - is important depends on whether I’ve got to face Voldemort. Until that becomes a necessity, it’s not immediately important. Even then, I’ve got a lot I think I need to learn and I won’t see myself as ready until I’ve learned it regardless.”

“If you’re otherwise not ready, being magically mature would help.”

“True. The fact I’ve faced him helps. But the more prepared I am the better. So the real concern with this Time Compression for now is my mother and my brother or sister.”

Luna nodded. “We need it to help plan and prepare. But it’s known effects will be more important to them than to us as far as we know.”

“So, this Pure-blood stuff is all a bunch of rubbish an ancestor of mine made up so he could rape teenage girls?” Anna asked.

“That’s one way to look at it,” Sirius replied.

“Not an accurate one,” Connie said. “Lord Arcturus was not about to condone his Grandfather’s activities - he too found them loathsome - but there’s no evidence of illegality unfortunately. Your ancestor was very charismatic and a looker apparently. Back then, so long as the girl had achieved her bonding age, she could choose to sleep with a wizard. Given that all of the girls who slept with Phineus Black did so for a year or more, there’s no reason to believe they were forced to nor were there any allegations that he had forced them into his bed. He altered their memories only after they were pregnant which was always when he was about to move on and a dozen or more of the girls became his mistresses for the rest of his life. What he did was wrong on many levels, but given that his conquests were from the lower tiers in our society and they all benefited from his attentions certainly while they were in school - most became adept at potions and found good employment when they finished - what he did was extreme but not illegal at that time. It is now. Once he was dead it was made illegal.

“His specific activities with young women aside, he did not invent Pure-blood Supremacy out of whole cloth. It had existed for centuries. As I may have said earlier, it was a fringe belief. What he did was make it more palatable, popular and mainstream.”

“And more dangerous,” Sirius added. “Before, it was a belief system that attracted only a small number, maybe a few score at any time and they all were Pure-bloods and destitute, victims of generations of waste who had nothing but their blood to be proud of and who loathed everything about the rest of us. They blamed their rotten lives on Muggle influences, even though it was more often the ineptitude of their own ancestors, and found evidence of that stuff in everything including education so that if they had children, those children would not be sent to school lest they be subjected to corrupting ideas. Such children would have to marry into a like minded line, which often meant close relatives since it’s not like those Pure-bloods socialized - after all being sociable risked being exposed to Muggle influences. End result, the Old Believers were ignorant, destitute and often inbred; little more than beggars and thieves.

“Phineus was less on about Muggle corruptions. His idea was that Pure-blood was an ideal that all should aspire to, if not for themselves then for their descendants. They were super-wizards and as such it was their destiny to rule. Having covered up the dirty secrets of his foreign born ancestors, it was easy for him to say this seeing as he was already in the ruling class. His heirs were already destined to hold a hereditary seat in the Wizengamot. He and his heirs had nothing at stake, assuming their less than Pure-blood ancestry never came to light. As a ‘Pure-blood’, and therefore being better than those he considered more base, they existed to serve people like him, which meant they should be honoured if they or their daughters were called to his bed.

“His excuses aside, it was palatable to some. Many of the families with hereditary seats were either Pure-bloods or would be with a generation or two of selective breeding, which they were already doing by marrying their children for influence or money. Those old families without money or influence suddenly became popular in a way as their unmarried members were now marketable for an arranged marriage simply ‘cause they were so many generations removed from their Muggle ancestors. Newer families, ones that were all Muggle within the last six generations but were technically Pure-bloods, became marketable when before they could only be considered relevant in old society if they were filthy rich and many were anything but that. People began to see Blood status as an attraction when it had never mattered before. While arranged marriages existed before, they became the norm for most older families.”

“And all the time,” Connie said, “what they were doing was weakening their magic with each selectively bred generation. Phineus Black’s ancestors believed that and while they did not marry Muggle Borns, they married close to them. They knew that if you wanted to sustain or strengthen the magic in the family, a Muggle Born spouse was ideal. But they also lived in a society where family influences mattered. There were not a lot of rich Muggle Borns to marry. Give them a generation or two and they might well be wealthy, but our laws practically ensure they do not bring ‘old’ money into our world.”

“Muggle Borns can’t be rich?” Anna asked. “That doesn’t seem fair.”

“They can’t bring an inheritance from their world into ours,” Sirius said. “It cuts both ways as a Squib can’t bring a magical inheritance into the Muggle world. There was a series of treaties about it.”

“Haven’t been taught about those,” Anna said. “Binns is all on about the Statute of Secrecy and Goblin wars and such.”

“As far as I recall, the Treaties of Separation were not covered when I was in school. Most of his course is about magical developments like who invented the self-stirring cauldron and Goblin Wars which always went surprisingly well for the Goblins and not politics and certainly not about our prior relations with the Muggle World given the Statute of Secrecy. But there are older agreements still in effect and the Treaties of Separation are among them. It was a series of treaties between the Wizengamot of Greater Britannia and the varies Muggle sovereigns at the time: England, Scotland and various principalities in Wales and Ireland. Basically, it says that what’s magical is magical and what’s Muggle is Muggle. It divided lands and estates into Magical and Muggle and they were to remain that for all time. It does not prevent a magical from renting Muggle lands or Muggles from renting magical land, but I can’t buy Muggle land and they can’t buy my land. It also means a Muggle Estate does not become magical even if the sole heir to that estate is a witch or wizard. So, a Muggle Born from a wealthy family leaves their wealth at the door, as it were.”

“Is that ‘cause we don’t get on with the Muggles?”

“It had nothing to do with that and that was never much of an issue here.”

“But there was something I read about burning witches…”

“They did that on the Continent,” Sirius nodded. “Did it for a bit in Scotland too, until the witches hunters were rounded up and hung by other Muggles. For the most part, there was never much of an issue about magic here. There were a few Muggles who tried to make it one, but most never bothered with it and those who did were more likely to hang than any real witch or wizard.”

“But Nearly Headless Nick,” Anna exclaimed. “He was beheaded!”

“Not for being a wizard,” Sirius said.

“But I heard he said it was ‘cause he hexed a Muggle by accident!”

“He was beheaded,” Sirius nodded. “The Muggles only did that for one reason: treason! In the case of Sir Nicholas, he openly supported a pretender to the throne of England, or so King Henry VII claimed. A fair few lost their heads for similar reasons early in that butcher’s reign, never mind the fact he led a coup against another king. The truth is being a witch or wizard was never really a crime. There was a brief period when there were laws against it, but in practice it wasn’t much of a deal at all. Just about every trial of a witch or wizard in England aside from those involving clergy members were not so much about the magic itself as the means or intent of the magic. Necromancy was a crime since it involved violations of the dead which was a crime all by itself. Otherwise, in practice magic was a tool used in a crime and not the crime itself. In other words, had the alleged witch or wizard done the same thing without magic, they still would’ve been punished or executed under the law. Unlike the continent, many of those accused were acquitted and a false accusation of witchcraft was also a criminal offense. Burning a witch was contrary to law and custom. For capital offenses less than treason, a person was hanged. The truly bad times for England were in the mid-17th Century when England was controlled by a religious fanatic and not a King.

“Still, it was a farce in many ways. Back in those days, most women were considered the responsibility of the males in their families: fathers, husband and guardians and such. Only nuns and old widows were considered independent. Unless the woman was independent, the family could be held responsible for her crimes. She might hang, but they could lose their lands or freedom. But, if she were also accused of using magic the family was in the clear so it was often used that way: hang the witch and spare her family. Then there were the independent women who were accused on occasion by a distant claimant to her estate to get her out of the picture so they could inherit. The hysteria over on the Continent never made it into England. Then again, it wasn’t an English idea and the English were by nature suspicious of anything that was foreign - especially if it was French.

“King Edward IV married a witch and it was hardly a secret! Not exactly a bunch of witch hunting zealots if they look the other way when their King marries one even though she was a commoner which they also chose to overlook. She was accused of it formally, but that was when the King’s brother was King and trying to suppress dissent for his usurpation of the crown and she was not executed. Throughout most of Britain and most of its history, if the Muggles executed a witch or wizard, it was almost always for a crime that had nothing to do with magic alone: treason, murder, and such.”

“A king married a witch?” Anna asked.

“He did,” Sirius said. “And she wasn’t a Muggle Born, that much is certain. Nor was her mother, apparently.”

“How do we know?”

“The woman did not attend Hogwarts,” Sirius replied. “Back then it was the only such school in the British Isles or at least on this one and the only other option was in France and we were not getting on with them at all in either world. The only group of children that are required to attend magical schools are the Muggle Borns. Older lines may opt out of it, although the vast majority who do hire tutors. Even back then, Muggle Borns had to attend school. She did not but she was a witch so that meant she was not Muggle Born.”

“Doesn’t that mean there was a wizard king or something?”

“No. The Treaty of Separation made it clear that no wizard could ever be king. One of her daughters married a future king, but it seems she was magically barren meaning while she could have children they would not be magical at all.”

“But how…?”

“It’s not known for certain,” Connie replied. “Most likely, the mother or her daughters contracted Symonian Pox which while generally not life threatening will leave a witch magically barren or, if not truly barren, her daughters would be if she was untreated and that was a hundred years or more before the affliction was even understood, much less treatable.”

“But the boys were killed, weren’t they?”

“That’s what the Muggles were meant to believe. They believe the two boys - the older one was barely twelve - were locked up in the Tower of London and later killed by someone and there’s a long list of ideas as to who did it and why, although most blame their Uncle who took the throne. The truth was they were given a choice: impovershment or Hogwarts. They could not become King or even remain in the line of succession due to the treaty. Their mother, upon being advised that they could never become King, chose to have them exiled into our world. To avoid publicizing the truth, the Muggles made it public that the King and Queen were never really married, thus the boys were illegitimate and could not be in line for the throne. The boys were sent off to Hogwarts after their father died and the other girls - those who lived long enough as one died young - they were married into the Muggle nobility aside from one who became a nun. But those who were married off were either magically barren or not magical or otherwise their children would never in the line of succession as they were by then deemed illegitimate. Nearly Headless Nick was executed for trying to set one of the boys on the throne, except he actually backed an imposter as the boys had renounced their claims by then. But don’t tell Nick that. To this day he’s convinced he backed the right person.”

“So if being magical was not a real problem back then, why this treaty that made them different?”

“That was about taxes,” Sirius said. “Before the Treaty, if you lived on a magical estate you paid taxes to both the Wizengamot and the Muggles. The Treaty divided things up. If you live or work on ‘treaty lands,’ you only pay taxes to the Wizarding government. If you live or work on Muggle lands, you pay taxes to them. It’s somewhat more complicated than that, but essentially that’s what it was about. If you live in the magical world, you answer to their laws and pay their taxes and if you live in the muggle world, you answer to their laws and pay their taxes.”

“What if you live in both?”

“Then both can tax you but only for the bits that can be taxed in their world. Keeping the bits separate is a profitable line of work for our solicitors. Many choose our world because taxes are lower, but some choose the Muggle one ‘cause you can potentially make more money there and some choose both. House Black has investments in the Muggle World and they make us more money for less than on this side. We have to pay their taxes on that money but the Ministry can’t tax it. It’s complicated but a good accountant can tell who can tax what. Gringotts is very good at that. But that’s also one of the reasons why Phineus Black’s ideas became popular. He also was saying that we should be able to make money anywhere we want and not have to pay taxes to Muggles or abide by their laws. Which brings us back to the hypocrisy of all of that rubbish.”

“But what do Muggles and taxes have to do with it?” Anna asked.

“The Supremacists want to be able to ignore the Muggles at the very least and some believe they should rule over them. Naturally, this means they want to get their money as well. This assumes that they can do either. There are a thousand or more Muggles for every witch and wizard and about ten times that for every Pure-blood. Even with magic it would be impossible to ignore them much less rule over them. Throw in their technology and it becomes suicide. If we were to try, they would destroy us and yet you listen to the Supremacists and you’d think it would be the other way around. One-on-one, they may have a point because one-on-one there’s a chance that we could succeed. That assumes we have a wand and know how to use it in a fight and they’re unarmed. If they have a gun and know how to use it, then we cannot win if they see us coming unless we’re really lucky. They can kill us before we could get close enough to do anything. But that’s one-on-one and there’s a lot more of them than there are of us. They have more Muggle Aurors than we have people and that’s not including their army whose job it is to fight wars and kill their enemies and which is about as large as their police forces if not larger. All of that lot are trained to use guns and have access to them if needed and that lot outnumbers all of us by four-to-one or more. If it came to a war between us, we would’ve lost a thousand years ago, much less today. Yet the Death Eaters truly believed it otherwise despite the fact that not a single one of them ever survived an encounter with an armed Muggle.

“The Pure-blood Supremacy types believe Pure-bloods are inherently more powerful than other witches and wizards which again is patently false. On average, if you’re talking about magical potential that distinction belongs to Muggle Borns and to magically bonded couples and their children. In a magical bond such as the one between your mother and I, our children are no less powerful than we are and more likely are more so. Without a magical bond to enhance the parents' magic, each generation is less magical than the one before even if it’s only to a very small degree. If they keep marrying away from source magic, each generation will be weaker than the last until, in time, they lose their magical ability.

“Before the Supremacy became popular, a lot of magical parents arranged marriages for their children. But those arrangements were not based on bloodlines alone. The families gained something from the arrangements and if those benefits could come from marrying a Muggle Born or their child, then that would be done. True, the benefits tended to be found in the older lines which had been magical for generations even if they were by no means Pure-blood. After all, a new line won’t have a seat on the Wizengamot and may not have money or business interests to make their children highly marketable. But if the child was a prodigy at school that was also a ‘selling’ point. Since my ancestor started pushing that Pure-blood nonsense, blood status has become important enough on its own. Whatever you may think of arranged marriages, when they were based upon potential gains in reputation, magical abilities, economics, business or politics there was a sense to them. When you throw those tangible gains away to maintain a fictional sense of superiority, the whole thing becomes truly pointless.

“Sorry,” Sirius finished somewhat sheepishly. “Went off on a bit of a lecture there.”

“I don’t mind,” Anna said. “It was far more interesting than sitting in class listening to Binns. But, does this mean we Blacks - I am a Black, right? - does this mean we’re like them?”

“Nature versus nurture,” Connie said.

“Excuse me?” Anna asked.

“It’s an argument of sorts that was popular amongst the Muggles who studied child development and such when I was young. It might still be one. It asks the question: are we who we are largely because of our genetic ancestry or is it because of how we are raised? There are arguments in favor of both, evidence in favor of one or the other, and evidence that suggests it’s neither of them.”

“That Muggle theory aside,” Sirius said, “there are those who believe that as a Black we must be dark or dark inclined. But if you look at the family in its entirety, that thought falls far from the mark. Phineus Black did not hesitate to disown his descendants who did not believe every word he said. His son Sirius was as likely to do so as not, although not as vicious to his kin as his father had been. Grandfather seemed to be far less inclined to do that to what was left, but he still disowned my Uncle Alphard after Uncle Alphard loaned me money and paid my Hogwarts tuition when I ran out on my parents.”

“That was the excuse but not the reason why Alphard Black and his line were disowned,” Connie said. “Lord Arcturus was many things and not all of them admirable. But he was never a follower and never a Pure-blood Supremacists. He believed a Black should follow the Lord Black or no one at all. A true Black would do what was best for his family even if that put him at odds with House Black or the rest of society. Far too many had chosen to follow others. Alphard chose to follow another and, worse, had pledged to that other to use his influence with his sister - your mother - to ensure the other was financed liberally.”

“I never would have tagged him as a follower of Voldemort,” Sirius began.

“You’d be wrong to do so,” Connie said. “His leader was Albus Dumbledore.”

“What? But that's…”

“The last person you’d expect a true Black to follow,” Connie nodded. “Alphard chose to follow the one person who would destroy House Black given a chance. That was the real reason he was disowned although Lord Arcturus being the devious man that he was, was not about to tip his hand and let other know what he knew. Alphard loaned you money. Lord Arcturus would’ve done so himself had you gone to him, but you did not and that gave him a plausible excuse to get rid of that threat to House Black.”

“Um… I did join Dumbledore’s Order of the Phoenix,” Sirius began. “Yet Grandfather seemed to overlook that.”

“He knew and it was different,” Connie replied. “You joined his organization, but you did not take an oath of fealty to him and him alone, did you? You did not offer your family fortune without condition, did you?”

“No. I did not.”

“Like a Death Eater, your Uncle vowed away his heritage to support a threat to House Black without conditions. You chose sides and worked for the lesser of two evils. Your Grandfather could understand your lack of opportunities seeing as no one was really doing much about the Death Eaters at the time…”

“Not that the Order was much better,” Sirius gumbled.

“… but your Grandfather noted you made no effort to pledge yourself or your family irrevocably to that man and his cause. You knew as well as any that House Black would never truly follow Dumbledore or that usurper either.”

Sirius nodded.

“Then who does House Black follow?” Anna asked.

“It’s an Ancient and Noble House,” Sirius said. “We ‘follow’ no one. Our Head is expected to act in the best interests of the House and if that means we act alone, we do. There are times when one House or another might be better positioned to lead on that issue and our Heads would let them be. But just because we let them take the lead on one thing does not mean we would follow their lead in anything else. I take it you mean that Alphard was thinking of vassalage or something?”

“Vassalage?” Anna asked.

“Binding and absolute subordination of your or your House interests to another,” Connie explained. “And that is what Lord Arcturus believed was happening. One must admit, Sirius, your father would do whatever your mother wanted and she was not politically astute and could easily be led astray by one who was.”

“I never paid her much attention,” Sirius confessed.

“Lord Arcturus did. She was, after all, married to his heir and mother of his heir apparent. He would never have agreed to that match and not just because she was her husband’s second cousin. He considered her family weak willed and too easily swayed by others. He had reason to believe that Alphard had all but promised House Black to Dumbledore in time, but did not have enough proof to disinherit the traitor. His defying his sister’s wishes regarding you allowed Lord Arcturus to deal with the situation without revealing his real suspicions. He was unable to confirm those suspicions until after you were thrown into Azkaban.”

“So what happened to confirm his suspicions?” Sirius asked. “Not that I doubt what he believed, but I can’t see how Uncle Alphard could’ve been a threat to House Black. Not while Grandfather lived, at any rate.”

“That would assume Dumbledore expected immediate returns,” Connie agreed. “It seems he looked at the long term. Lord Arcturus would not be around forever, after all. About all Alphard could do before then was get money from your parents' trust and funnel it to Dumbledore. Lord Arcturus felt this would’ve been fairly easy. Alphard was not an obvious Blood Traitor and could easily have duped your mother into believing the money was going to the Death Eaters or for their support when in reality it was filling Dumbledore’s coffers. And it may have worked. But he bit the hand that was feeding him, so to speak, when he loaned you that money which was one thing you mother would not overlook.

“But Dumbledore played his hand when you wound up in Azkaban. Lord Arcturus demanded that you get a trial and Dumbledore made it clear that you would get one, provided House Black swore vassalage. Naturally, he did so in a way that would be all but impossible to prove and don’t ask me how ‘cause I never really understood it. Still…”

“The old man seemed to go out of his way to prevent my recent trial and exoneration,” Sirius nodded. “He came perilously close to pushing too hard and losing his position. He had House Potter under his thumb or so he thought. But with Harry’s emancipation and my release that was slipping away. House Potter was a major thorn in his side before and he rightly fears it will be again. So Dumbeldore went after my House as well?”

“It was vulnerable. You were the only clear heir left seeing as your father and younger brother were already dead. With you in prison and therefore unable to assume your role as Head of House once Lord Arcturus passed away House Black would all but cease to exist and so long as you remained there without being stripped of your ancestral privileges no one else could step in and claim it. Dumbledore gave what he saw as two options: vassalage or incapacitation. Of course, Dumbledore knew nothing about me or Anna. But Lord Arcturus did by then. Anna was his ‘secret weapon.’ It was why he spent as much time with us as he did and why he insisted I keep this secret until either you where exonerated with your independence intact or Anna here came of age such that she could assume the Black seat as Regent in your stead.”

“Secret weapon? What do you mean?” Anna asked.

“Dumbledore’s schemes for House Black assume that he knows and can control its future,” Connie said. “He knows about your father, of course, and saw to it your father remained in prison. He knew who was next in line after your father but that changed the moment you were born which he knows nothing about. Since he knows nothing about you, and you are the true heir right now, his plans are worthless. Naturally, Lord Arcturus wanted to keep Dumbledore in the dark as long as possible and preferably until you were safely out of that man’s school.”

“And now? I mean before there was that prison thing. Now that Daddy’s out, will it remain secret? Does it have to?”

Sirius wanted to answer, but after hearing his daughter call him ‘Daddy’ for the first time he found he could not.

“That is among the things your father and I need to talk about. There are reasons to keep it secret longer, or at least known to a small few and possibly protected by magic even then.”

“You mean like that Fido Charm they told us about on the train?”

“Fido Charm?” the two adults asked.

“Well, it sounded like that. It hides a secret in magic and only that person who’s hiding the secret can tell it.”

“Fidelius Charm,” Sirius said with a chuckle. “And that’s what it does.”

“And that’s what I mean,” Connie added. “So yes, that’s an option. After all, while Dumbledore’s plan for your father is scuppered and he can’t take action against you without getting in serious trouble, he’s not the only one to worry about.”

“Oh?” Anna asked.

“There’s probably one family out there who would not be happy that their boy has no chance at being Lord Black,” Connie said.

“Not Harry,” Sirius said. “I doubt he’d want it. Especially as it would mean another wife in the future.”

“There’s your Cousin Draco Malfoy.”

“The Frog Spawn? I can assure you that line was effectively cut out in Grandfather’s Will and while I could reinstate it, I see no reason to leave House Black to a French upstart! Let Lucius try! His wife may be my first cousin, but that’s on my mother’s side. And he’s not related at all. I would’ve killed her sister had that Death Eater crossed my path during the War. I won’t lose sleep were I to ruin her husband or her or her brat if they even thought of messing with the succession! Maybe I should just disown her and be done with that mess.”

“Even without Dumbledore and the… Frog Spawn?… were it to get out that Anna is your heir, there’d be the inevitable marriage offers.”

“I’m not about to barter my daughter like a bushel of corn! The rest of the Pure-blood idiots may sell their children off into marriage, more power to them. But I won’t do that to mine! Don’t tell me Grandfather did.”

“He didn’t. He was forced into a marriage as were his children and those were arranged by his father and they were married off before he could become Lord Black and put a stop to it. He had no use for such arrangements. In his mind, they only worked as designed if they would’ve worked had there been no marriage contract involved at all. Those things were entered into to forge a political or economic alliance yet invariably in the end each family acts in what it sees as its own best interests and if that means something contrary to the alliance, then so much for that. He wanted nothing to do with that nonsense. He would’ve insisted on some kind of contract before she married but that would be to let the boy and his family know that she is Head of House and not the boy and the family can expect no boon for themselves.”

“Good, and that other idea makes sense!” Sirius repied.

“So, I won’t get married?” Anna asked.

“You’re a bit young to be thinking about that, and that’s not what I meant. You won’t be told who you’re to marry unlike your Grandfather and other ancestors and unlike me when I was your age. Fortunately, she died as I said earlier and I was able to meet your Mum and bond with her.”

“Siri, she is a girl,” Connie said. “It’s a fair bet she thinks about marriage and husbands and such.”

“Does she? Do I need to hear this?”

“I have. All the stories were about that.”

“Obviously read different stories than I did at your age.”

“Maybe, maybe not,” Connie said. “Boys lose interest after the violent bits and killing of dragons or evil doers is over. Girls keep listening through the kissing bits and happily ever after. It’s the same with Muggle cinema. Girls like ‘relationship’ stories and boys like pictures with things blowing up.”

“Explosions are cool,” Sirius agreed as his daughter rolled her eyes at the comment. “But my point remains that you’re a bit young to get married or be thinking seriously about it. When that time comes - and hopefully that’s not anytime soon - it will be your choice.”

“And what if you don’t like the boy or his family?” Connie asked with a sly grin.

“I’m sure I can so encumber the Estate that her husband couldn’t buy a bog roll from a Black account without first going through a full application and review with a hoard of Gringotts' Accountants, especially for the time being.”

“I don’t understand,” Anna said. “I mean I can figure out what encumber means, but what’s about the time being?”

“Right now, you’re our only child,” Sirius said. “The future of House Black is on your shoulders entirely, at least until your mother and I change that - assuming we will…”

“That was my plan,” Connie said.

“When?” Anna asked.

“We’ll see. If it happens, it will happen when it happens and not before. You were saying Siri?”

“Right now, you’re it Anna. Your children are this House’s future for now, assuming they’re Blacks.”

“They wouldn’t be?” Anna asked.

“It’s a law and custom that doesn’t make sense, if you ask me. But right now, because I have no son, everything passes to you in time. The titles, however, and the votes on the Wizengamot that go with those titles, cannot pass to your children unless they are born Blacks legally and not just by bloodline. That means they can have no interest in their father’s family heritage, not even his last name. There’s a contract he would have to agree to called a Line Continuation Contract. If he agrees to it, your children are Blacks in all respects and the oldest son becomes Lord Black of the Ancient and Noble House of Black in time and Earls of Hangleton and Falthsome and Baron Savoy. Otherwise, the property and such passes to you and to them, but the House Black seat will not pass on past you. A Line Continuation contract allows everything to pass to the next generation, but nothing can be inherited from the father - at least by the heir - not even the name. Often this is done by arranging the marriage, usually to a young man who stands to receive no inheritance from his own family. Where he stands to inherit, even if it’s not certain that he will but only that he could, the law allows him a second wife to carry on that separate estate; which I’m sure you would not want.”

“Not really, no,” Anna agreed. “I mean, I do know ‘bout that sort of. House Potter and House Longbottom…”

“They are very unique circumstances,” Sirius said. “So unique I’m not sure it’s ever happened that way before. And you should know, it wasn’t meant to happen. Certain things which they could not control had to happen for those marriages to happen and if those things never happened, neither of those boys could have had more than one wife. Without going into too much detail, so far as anyone knows, no one has had compatible magic with more than one other person before and those two boys had it with two witches. Their other contracts were conditioned on those bonds actually occurring, which is by no means certain as they could’ve not liked each other at all much less in a way that would trigger the bond. They had to want to be together, and that’s never truly certain. There’s nothing like that in your future, thank Merlin.”

“Don’t be so sure,” Connie said.

“Oh?” Anna and Sirius asked.

“Later. I can’t do that Fidelius Charm. Can you, Siri?”

“Never tried it.”

“But there is someone here who can?”

“It seems Harry’s wife Hermione’s done it more than once.”

“There’s something I need to tell the both of you, but I don’t want it getting out to the wrong people so until we can arrange that Charm, I’ll say nothing more.”