The Brightest Black

The fire roared – making Hermione look up from her book. Out stepped her Aunt Andy, a thunderous look on her face. She didn’t even glance at Hermione as she stormed out of the room and down the hallway. A moment later a loud slam resonated through the house, making it shudder.

Now, that was curious. Hermione couldn’t think of the last time she’d seen her aunt this angry. And she was obviously angry at Padfoot. Just what had her dad done?

Quietly she put her book down and slipped to the doorway of the sitting room. Cautiously she glanced out into the hall, but saw no one. Distantly she could hear raised voices coming from Padfoot’s study down the hallway.

She moved slowly and quietly until she was standing outside the closed door. She could almost make out what her aunt was saying. She glanced around quickly to make sure no one was nearby, then she laid down on the floor, pressing her ear to the crack under the door.

“-the HELL do you think you’re doing! I almost had a heart attack when I opened the door! I TOLD you not to meddle! That it wasn’t your business! Some things-”

“Andy, calm down, I didn’t meddle.” Padfoot said soothingly. Hermione could picture him holding his arms in defense.

“Then how do you explain my sister showing up?!? She was asking to mend things! Wanting to repair the family! You, Sirius Orion Black, are the head of this family! You’re the only one that could get her to back down after ignoring me for two decades!”

“Why don’t you sit down and let me explain? I swear I didn’t meddle. Not really. I didn’t think she’d do it.”

Aunt Andy scoffed, “And just what is she trying to do? Get a piece of the Black pie for her son?”

The room was silent, Hermione really wished she could see her dad’s face. Then there was a shocked gasp, which she assumed came from her aunt.

“She is? Isn’t she? She wants to make amends, try to get you to leave something to Draco one day!”

Padfoot gave a harsh bark of laughter, “If only. No, she wants more than that. Apparently she’s got it into her head that Hermione and Draco would make a good match. They could merge the two families. She thinks Hermione would be good for Draco. She’s likely right. Though I don’t think Draco would be good for Hermione.”

Hermione stopped listening, the words she’d just heard racing through her head. She jumped up and stumbled down the hallway, covering her mouth with her hand. Trying not to be sick.

Her.

And Draco Malfoy.

A match.

Was Narcissa Malfoy insane!?!

How could she ever think that Hermione could marry the son of a Death Eater? The son of the man that had bribed enough people to turn Bellatrix Lestrange’s sentence from a kiss to life imprisonment. An action that had likely been prompted by Narcissa Malfoy? The proud nephew of that same witch who had murdered her parents? A boy that thought mudblood was a more acceptable term than muggleborn?

She made it to her bathroom and shut the door. Shaking, she leaned back against it and slowly slipped to the floor. Was this because she’d insulted and corrected Malfoy on the train? Had she been so nasty she’d impressed a Death Eater? Did they think she really was the person she’d pretended to be in the diary? That she was a ‘good’ Black? That she was like Bellatrix Lestrange?

At that thought she scrambled across the floor and barely got the lid of the toilet up before she was vomiting. Even when there was nothing else to come out she kept heaving, tears prickled her eyes, her nose closed up, making it hard to breathe. Memories raced through her mind, every painful moment of sitting at that table. Pretending she was just like Bellatrix Lestrange. Losing control, being forced to do something that went against everything she was.

Tears were coursing freely down her face and a sob cut through her. She slipped backwards, and wiped her face on her sleeves. When she pulled back she stared down at her right arm. Thin, opaque fabric smeared with snot and tears covered her it.

She idly began tracing the largest word, Mudblood. She couldn’t see it, but she knew it was there, knew exactly what it looked like. She knew where one side of the M went down farther than the other. Or how the two O’s were smushed together, sharing one deep, bone revealing cut. The scars had remained unchanging her entire life. They’d grown with her. Padfoot said it was because of the curse on the knife.

She wanted to be angry at Padfoot for not throwing Narcissa Malfoy out, for allowing that woman to believe there was a chance. But she couldn’t be. Hermione loved her dad, she trusted him. She knew he’d never force her to do anything. She’d heard him, he’d said he didn’t think Malfoy was good for her. He wouldn’t let anything happen to her. He’d saved her, he’d taken her in, loved her - raised her as his own.

He’d learned how to braid just so he could help her keep her hair out of the way. He’d taught her how to tie her shoes after she’d burst out crying - unable to understand why it was so easy for Ron and Harry to do it, while she struggled. He’d patiently taught her how to use a broom, spending hours of his day, while Harry raced around them, shouting encouragements.

Padfoot had given her a home.

He’d given her Harry.

He wasn’t going to take that all away by giving her to Malfoy.

She kept repeating that thought, over and over again. Eventually her breathing calmed down and returned to normal. She shakily stood up and went to the sink.

She looked in the mirror and couldn’t help but wince.

She looked a fright. Tears and snot covered her face. There was even what looked like vomit on her chin. Her black hair was plastered to her head with sweat. Her mouth tasted like she’d licked the toilet rather than vomited into it.

If Narcissa Malfoy could see her now she’d think twice about a marriage. Not that she seemed to care about looks, Hermione wasn’t much to look at on a good day. But at least she was clean. Maybe-

A knock sounded on the bathroom door, cutting off her thoughts.

She opened her mouth, but only a squeak came out. She stopped, cleared her throat, and tried again.

“Yes?”

“Hermione? Can I come in?”

She felt some of the tension leave her at the sound of Harry’s voice.

Harry was here.

She opened the bathroom door and her brother slipped inside. He was sweaty and looked very wind-blown. She assumed he’d been off flying at the Weasley’s, one of his favorite pastimes.

He shut the door behind himself and then turned to her and pulled her into a hug. He was a little shorter than her, but it still felt like he was the one enveloping her. The tight knot in her stomach began slowly unwinding. Harry was here. Padfoot loved her. Narcissa Malfoy wasn’t going to get her way. Even if Padfoot was making some concessions.

She knew he had to be behind Mrs. Malfoy making up with Aunt Andy. Now that she was calming down, she could think clearly. He knew she would never consent to marry Malfoy. And he would never force her. But he was smart, he knew Narcissa Malfoy wouldn’t give up. So he wanted to use it, make Aunt Andy happy. Hermione knew the two of them had gotten along as children. Before Hogwarts. Before Uncle Ted.

Before Voldemort.

He was likely hoping to change Mrs. Malfoy’s mind as well. Which meant Hermione was going to come into contact with Malfoy outside of school, at family events. So everyone could see just how much they all hated each other. How wrong a marriage was.

She smiled, Padfoot was so smart sometimes.

Sensing that she’d relaxed, Harry pulled back. He looked at her, a lopsided smile on his face as he reached over for a tissue.

When he held it out she took it and began wiping her face off, “Thank you, Harry.”

“You know you never have to thank me, ‘Mione. I’m your brother and your friend. You know I’ll always be here for you. Like you’re there for me.”

She shot him a fond look before dropping the tissue in the trash.

He ran a hand through his hair, “Do you want to tell me what that was about? I know it wasn’t a nightmare.”

“Yeah, let me get cleaned up and then we’ll go for a walk and I’ll tell you.”

Hermione could dimly hear Padfoot and Aunt Andy talking in the study when they walked past a few minutes later, but she didn’t stop to listen. She’d find out soon enough what Padfoot had planned. Though she was fairly sure she’d figured out most of it already.

The day was a warm one. The sun was shining down, basking the world in its golden glow, making darkness seem like an impossible thing. She closed her eyes as they walked and tilted her head up, letting the sunlight wash her face, chasing away the last few traces of her tears.

Just being outside, in the sun, with Harry at her side, made her feel free. Nothing truly bad could happen in the daylight. Ghosts and monsters only came out at night.

“There you two are. Hermione, are you alright?”

She gave a start and opened her eyes, blinking. Ron and Ginny were walking down the path towards them, their brooms over their shoulders.

“Harry ran off so quickly, we were worried,” Ginny said.

She smiled at them, feeling pleased they looked so concerned. Sometimes she forgot that she had more people than Harry and Padfoot. Ron had been her friend almost as long as Harry had been her brother. And Ginny was a wonderful person, a kindred spirit in more ways than one. And not just because of their shared experiences with the diary. “I’m alright now, I just got some disturbing news.”

“Want to talk about it?” Ginny asked.

Hermione nodded.

“How about we go sit by the stream then? Luna’s likely there feeding the fish right now,” Ron said.

That sounded like an excellent idea, so the four of them wound their way down the path, until they reached the turnoff for the Lovegoods and the small stream that twisted its way through the woods. As they walked the two boys and Ginny began discussing Quidditch and if it was likely that Wood would host tryouts this year. Both Ron and Ginny hoped that he would, since they wanted to try out, but Harry didn’t have much hope. Wood thought they had a good team, and didn’t like rocking the boat. Both Weasley siblings thought it was terribly unfair that Harry hadn’t needed to try out. All he’d had to do was stop Malfoy from breaking Neville’s personal property, while instead breaking half a dozen school rules.

Padfoot had been rather proud of Harry, though he’d tried to hide it by scolding him. Hermione sometimes wondered just how much their dad had changed after he’d taken them in. Some of the stories Uncle Remus or Aunt Andy shared showed a very different Sirius Black than the one she knew and loved.

Hermione tuned out the Quidditch talk after a bit. It wasn’t really her thing. She just soaked in the peaceful English countryside, letting it wash away any lingering worries. She’d tell her friends about Mrs. Malfoy’s plan. Between them they should be able to convince her. And, if it came down to it, they’d tell Malfoy. She smiled as she pictured the look of horror that would appear on his face at the idea of marrying her. He’d never actually called her a mudblood. She thought it might be due to the fact that if he named her as one it would mean he was related to one. But it might also be because he didn’t view her as one, since she had been raised as a witch. She really didn’t know.

She stopped in her tracks, a terrible, horrible idea appearing in her head. Could she do something that terrible? Would it be terrible?

What if she went along with Mrs. Malfoy? Paid attention to Malfoy, continued what she’d been doing on the train? Bothering him, torturing him, bossing him around. Giving him a taste of his own medicine. He’d never agree to a marriage then. He’d hate her.

She frowned and started walking again. The other three hadn’t even noticed that she’d stopped. But what if he didn’t hate her? What if he liked being treated like that? She’d heard once that some people craved being ordered around. She couldn’t understand it, but then, she didn’t really understand the point of Quidditch either.

Maybe….

Maybe if he did like that, then she would have to reject him, break his heart. But wouldn’t that be worse? Could she knowingly set out to break someone’s heart?

She shook her head, she was being ridiculous. She was overthinking things. How would she be treating Malfoy if she didn’t know about Narcissa Malfoy’s plans? Maybe she should try for that. Pretend she never got the information, and just wait and see.

Yes, that might be good. She wouldn’t give away then that she’d been eavesdropping. What was Ron always saying about chess? Something about analyzing all of the possibilities and then planning accordingly. That wasn’t really Hermione’s thing. She preferred making a plan and sticking to it, no matter what.

Maybe that’s why he always won at chess.

“Hey, Luna! How’re the fish?”

Hermione pulled herself out of her thoughts as the boy in question called out to the blonde girl sitting on a boulder on the edge of the stream, a fishing rod in her hands, bare feet dangling in the water that slowly wove its way through the overhanging trees.

“They’re very hungry today,” she gestured to an empty basket next to her, “they’ve eaten almost everything I brought.”

“Probably because it’s been so dry this summer. The stream is lower than normal,” Hermione said.

Luna seemed to consider that while everyone found places to rest. Hermione plopped herself under a shady maple tree. She found it to be rather interesting that Ginny and Harry sat down next to each other on a log that jutted out into the stream. They were rather close together, and there was a tinge of pink on Ginny’s cheeks every time Harry’s shoulder brushed against hers.

Oh, she was going to tease him about that.

But then when Ginny bent over to take off her shoes and socks she started to lose her balance. Harry reached out immediately. One of his hands caught hers and the other grabbed her shoulders. As soon as Ginny was safely settled again they broke apart, and Harry was beet red.

On second thought, maybe she wouldn’t tease him.

At least, not yet. She’d wait until she had some more ammunition.

Ron looked around and seemed to decide there were no good seats left. He wandered over to the boulder where Luna was sitting and leaned against it, staring down at the water, a curious expression on his face.

“Do you see a gillypup? Father said there were sightings a few counties over,” Luna asked.

Ron shook his head, “No, I’m just thinking…”

“Uh oh, we better watch out!” Ginny exclaimed.

“Yeah, Ron, you know what happened the last time you were thinking,” Harry said.

“Those poor, poor firsties. I think you scarred them for life,” Hermione added, fighting a grin.

Luna giggled, while Ron just made a loud, “Hmph!” but refused to rise to the bait.

“I was just trying to think of a way for Luna to make a fish feeder, you know, like those bird feeders Mrs. Tonks has. Then she would know they’d never go hungry. Even when she’s at Hogwarts.”

Hermione nibbled at her lip, “Let me do a bit of research. There might be a way…”

They sat there in silence, just enjoying the weather. Hermione knew they were curious what her disturbing news was, but they weren’t going to push her. She was grateful, her skin still crawled every time she thought of marrying Draco Malfoy.

After a bit Luna pulled her line from the water, revealing a strange little contraption at the end of it. It looked a bit like an upside down Christmas tree. Ron took the rod and held it for her while she began decorating it with the last few pieces of food in her basket.

Personally, Hermione found it a little silly to feed fish in a wild stream, but she always put it in the same category as Quidditch or Gobstones. Even the silliest things were entertaining sometimes. Why, even she had been known to play a game of Exploding Snap every once in a while. And there were worse hobbies than sitting by the water on a gorgeous summer day, feeding fish.

Like bullying.

She scowled. Maybe she could use this opportunity to break Malfoy of his terrible hobbies. Surely the Malfoys wouldn’t want their son to start being nice to people. Especially muggleborns and blood traitors.

Yes, that was a real possibility. She could keep acting like she normally would, with the end goal of making Malfoy a decent human being. He might not even be a bad person to be acquainted with in the future if she did that.

Though she would never, ever marry him.

Not if he was the last man on Earth.

Now, time to share what she had learned and deducted with the others.

It was going to be a long year.

XXX

Sirius pinched the top of his nose and took a deep breath. “So, let me get this straight. You believe there is a horcrux here at Hogwarts. You think he hid it here when he applied for a job. But, you have no idea where it could be.”

“That’s right.”

“Albus, do you understand how bloody big this castle is? It took us Marauder’s a full year to properly map it out. And we’d already been almost everywhere in the castle by then!”

“Really, Albus. Isn’t there some way you can locate it through the wards?”

Albus gave Remus Lupin a sad smile. “I already tried using the wards. They can’t detect anything.” He held up a hand to stop whatever Remus had opened his mouth to say. “That does not mean it isn’t here. There are ways to conceal things, even from the wards. Now, can either of you think of a place where he could hide a horcrux?”

Remus grew very thoughtful, a small frown marring his forehead.

Sirius knew that look. An idea was forming for his friend, he just needed time for it grow. He pasted a thoughtful expression on his own face and fixed his eyes on one of the spinning, metal devices on the Headmaster’s desk.

He really had no idea where You-Know-Who would hide a horcrux. He’d only found the locket because of Kreacher. And even that had been pure luck. Complete, ridiculous luck.

He had a sudden idea.

“Albus, have you asked a house elf?”

The Headmaster looked at him in disbelief. “You really think Voldemort would use a house elf to hide the horcrux? I know Kreacher helped you find one, but that was pure luck.”

“No, he’s right Albus. You asked us here because you said we know Hogwarts best. But we don’t. Not really.”

“And we know we’re looking for something belonging to one of the Founders. We know he has the Hufflepuff cup. And while the Ravenclaw diadem is missing, I wouldn’t put it past that sneaky bastard to find it. The sword of Gryffindor has been missing for almost as long as the diadem, but it’s said that only a true Gryffindor can find. So, that one might be safe, but I wouldn’t count on it. If we ask, they might have seen one of them,” Sirius said.

Albus looked at the two of them for a moment, considering what they had said, weighing their arguments in his mind. He nodded his head, “I do believe that’s a good idea. And we certainly do not have enough ideas that we can be wasting the few good ones. Floppy!”

A little house elf with the most enormous ears Sirius had ever seen appeared.

“Headmaster be wanting Floppy?” squeaked the elf.

“Ah, yes, Floppy. I was wondering if you, or any other house elf here, had seen one of these two things.” Albus waved his wand and created illusions of the sword, cup and diadem.

Sirius stared at the diadem in confusion. He wondered just how Albus knew what that looked like. The cup he had seen in a memory, but not the diadem. And the sword was quite visible in a tapestry in the Gryffindor Common Room.

Remus leaned over and whispered, “There’s a statue of Rowena Ravenclaw in the Ravenclaw Tower, she’s wearing the diadem in it.”

He looked at his friend in surprise, “And how do you know that?”

Remus grinned wolfishly and gave him a wink, “Krissi Pratchett thought I was rather smart. She wanted to show me her book collection.”

Sirius let out a long whistle, “And you called me a dirty dog!”

A throat was very pointedly and purposefully cleared, causing the two men to look over at the Headmaster. And for an instant Sirius felt like he was back in school.

Albus was almost, but not quite, glaring at them over the top of his half-moon spectacles. “Are you two quite done discussing past rule breaking in my presence?”

When neither of them said anything Albus smiled, a twinkle reappearing in his gaze.

“It seems that Floppy has seen the diadem somewhere in the school. Something about a Come and Go Room. He’s gone off in search of it. When he brings it here we can destroy it.”

“As soon as that’s done I need to leave. We’re expected at the Malfoy’s at 3 o’clock sharp,” Sirius said.

Albus’ eyebrows rose until they rested up near his hairline, “You are expected at the Malfoy’s? Should I make sure the aurors are on call?”

Remus let out a snort of laughter, “That might not be a bad idea.”

“Hey! I can behave like a gentleman when I want to! In fact, I had Narcissa Malfoy over for tea just this last week. No wands were drawn. In fact, I’d say my mother would’ve found the entire conversation rather disappointing.”

Albus leaned back in his chair, resting his hands upon his stomach. “And why was Mrs. Malfoy having tea with you? As far as I know, she and you have very different political beliefs.”

“And marriage beliefs,” Sirius said. “She is of the opinion that Hermione and her son would make a good match. I refused.”

“That does not explain the invite to her house.”

“Oh, just wait. He’s getting to that,” Remus put in, rolling his eyes at what he considered foolishness.

“I just wanted Cissy and Andy to make up,” Sirius said defensively. “Cissy isn’t all bad, she knows when love is more important. I may have refused to arrange a marriage, but I did agree to accept it if that’s what the children wanted.”

“Ah, so you agreed to have them come into contact more if Mrs. Malfoy made amends with her sister.” There was a knowing twinkle in Albus’ eyes as he clarified this.

“Yes, family is important.”

“Too, true. It does show just how much Mrs. Malfoy loves her son. She is willing to do whatever is necessary to get a wife for Draco Malfoy that will, ultimately, make him a better person.”

“But, the question is, Professor, does Draco Malfoy make Hermione a better person?” Remus said quietly.

“No,” Sirius snapped, “he doesn’t.”

“Sirius, my boy, they are only thirteen. Right now that may be true, but will it always be?”

Sirius was spared from answering by the return of Floppy, holding a gorgeous diadem in his hands. Albus thanked the house elf and then the three men took a little field trip outside.

It was time to have another little bonfire.