AN: Hi everyone thanks for all the support, we've hit 100 POWERSTONES so the BONUS chapter will be released very soon!
"He's coming on Monday," Blake said. It was 2 days after the fiasco at the World Cup, and things were still tense at home.
Carol looked up from her tea, surprised. "What? Dumbledore's coming here?"
"Yeah. He said he'll be here at noon."
She was quiet for a moment, then picked her tea back up.
"I see," she replied, taking a sip.
Carol was clearly still very anxious about recent events, and even more so for their future. Since coming home, she had rigorously grilled both Blake and Connor on Death Eaters, pureblood extremism and prejudice, and even on Voldemort.
"So how do you know he's really dead?" she had demanded.
"We just do, Mum," Connor replied, exasperated.
Either way, Blake was counting on the fact that Dumbledore wanted Blake to stay in Hogwarts to pull them through. He had asked Dumbledore to not tell his mother things before, and he had complied, so Blake was hopeful that this time wouldn't be any different.
"When are you leaving?" Carol asked, interrupting his thoughts.
Blake looked at his watch.
"Probably now, actually. Bye, Mum."
"Stay safe!"
Blake rolled his eyes as he shut the door.
/
Grimmauld Place was exactly as grim as the name suggested.
Blake stood outside checking the address against the houses on either side before the door suddenly swung open by itself. Lupin appeared in the doorway, and Blake immediately noticed that his former teacher looked different - healthier, and also happier, as if a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders.
"Blake! Come in, come in - Daphne's already here."
"It's good to see you, Professor," Blake said, smiling as they shook hands.
"Remus, please. I'm retired."
The hallway was dark and cluttered, and the portrait of a woman on the wall looked at him with immediate disgust. Blake looked back at it, guessing why.
"Don't," Lupin said quietly, touching the frame. The portrait grumbled and went still.
Sirius appeared from a doorway at the end of the hall, wearing very old robes, holding a mug. His face was much fuller now, and his beard and hair styled messily.
"Blake!" he said, looking genuinely pleased to see him. "Tea? Kreacher made it, so it's probably poisoned, but it tastes alright."
Kreacher?
"It's good to see you, Sirius. Oh, I'm fine, thanks," he said, as Sirius moved towards the kitchen area.
Greengrass was in the sitting room, already cross-legged on the floor with a stack of books and her notes spread out in front of her. She looked up when he came in.
"You're late," she said.
"Only four minutes."
"I know."
He sat down across from her.
Blake couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was, but the silence between them was slightly different to usual. Not uncomfortable, but not good either, he decided. His mind flashed back to right after the World Cup, the disappointment he'd felt.
Lupin settled into the armchair. Sirius dropped onto the sofa with his legs over the arm.
"How are you both doing?" Lupin asked. "After everything at the World Cup. Charlotte too - how is she?"
"She went quiet," Blake said, looking down at his hands. "We gave her space."
Lupin nodded, and reached over to the side table. He set the Daily Prophet down between them.
Blake saw the headline before he saw the photo.
MUGGLEBORN PRODIGY SINGLE-HANDEDLY FIGHTS OFF DEATH EATERS.
His own face underneath it, mid-duel, clearly him, a hex leaving his wand. Below that were two mugshots of the Death Eaters he'd caught. Blake bowed his head imperceptibly.
"Life sentence," Lupin said quietly. "Both of them - Violet Rosier and Arthur Greyfall. Came through yesterday."
Life. Blake thought about Charlotte's face when she'd heard her mother's name, how the warmth had left her face at once.
He looked at the photo again.
Beyond that however, he was, against his better judgement, fairly pleased about being on the front page. It's a bit annoying, though.
"Single-handedly," he said.
Greengrass didn't look up from her notes. "Mm."
"Zabini and Connor were there too."
"I know," she said. Same tone.
He almost said something back, but stopped himself. Daphne looked up for a second, as if waiting for something, before going back to her notes without finishing her expression.
Stop it, he thought.
Suddenly, Blake heard shuffling from the doorway, and his hand immediately moved towards his wand.
"Relax, Blake," Sirius said with a small chuckle, as an old, weird looking house elf lumbered towards them, carrying a tray with the energy of someone performing a punishment.
Ah. So this is Kreacher.
He set it down.
His eyes went to Greengrass first.
"The Noble House of Black welcomes its pureblood guest," Kreacher rasped, with something in his eyes almost like reverence.
Then he looked at Blake.
"And the mudblood," he added, in a tone of such total resignation it nearly looped back into comedy.
"Hello, Kreacher," Greengrass said, kindly but firmly, "please don't use that word, and treat him with respect."
Kreacher blinked at her. Confused, but obedient. "Of course, miss," he muttered, and shuffled out.
Blake watched him go. 'What a kind soul', he would've said normally.
"Don't," she said, turning a page.
What?
"Huh?," he said, appearing confused. "I wasn't going to say anything."
"Good," she said, turning another page. There's no way she finished reading that. He paused for a second.
"Thank you," he said, but Daphne only hummed in response.
"Shall we?"
/
The Black family library was massive, even by wizards standards. There were rows upon rows of bookshelves upon bookshelves in every direction, seemingly endlessly, and Blake couldn't help but wonder if he would ever find what they needed.
"The section for Potions and ingredients and illnesses are all relatively close together, luckily," Sirius told them, leading the way to the aforementioned areas. "But it's still massive."
"What about curses?" Blake asked. "Might be useful to see if we can find out anything about the origins."
"Fair enough," Sirius said. "Curses are over there, in the general Dark Arts section." He grimaced.
"I wouldn't spend too much time around there, though," he warned. "Some of the stuff in there is disgusting, even by my standards."
"I'll try not to," Blake said with a small smile, "but then again, I am a Slytherin."
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