Hp: Hermione and Darkness

Sirius walked across the room to where the tapestry Kreacher had been trying to protect hung the length of the wall. The tapestry was immensely old; it faded and looked like Doxys had gnawed it in places. Hermione had looked at it a few times over the summer holidays but only a little closely. She noticed the golden thread with which it was embroidered still glinted brightly enough to show a sprawling family tree dating back to the Middle Ages. Large words at the very top of the tapestry read:

The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black

'Toujours pur'

"You're not on here!" said Harry after scanning the bottom of the tree.

"I used to be there," said Sirius, pointing at a small, round, charred hole in the tapestry, rather like a cigarette burn. "My sweet old mother blasted me off after I ran away from home – Kreacher's quite fond of muttering the story under his breath."

"You ran away from home?"

"When I was about sixteen," said Sirius. "I'd had enough."

"Where did you go?" asked Harry.

"Your dad's place," said Sirius. "Your grandparents were really good about it; they sort of adopted me as a second son. Yeah, I camped out at your dad's in the school holidays, and when I was seventeen, I got a place of my own. My Uncle Alphard had left me a decent bit of gold – he's been wiped off here, too, that's probably why – anyway, after that, I looked after myself. I was always welcome at Mr and Mrs Potter's for Sunday lunch, though."

"But... why did you…?"

"Leave?" Sirius smiled bitterly and ran his fingers through his long, unkempt hair. "Because I hated the whole lot of them: my parents, with their pure-blood mania, convinced that to be a Black made you practically royal ... my idiot brother, soft enough to believe them ... that's him."

Sirius jabbed a finger at the very bottom of the tree, at the name 'Regulus Black'. A date of death (some fifteen years previously) followed the date of birth.

"He was younger than me," said Sirius, "and a much better son, as I was constantly reminded."

"But he died," said Harry.

"Yeah," said Sirius. "Stupid idiot... he joined the Death Eaters."

"You're kidding!"

Hermione frowned. Did Harry really not get it? Apparently, Sirius was equally as exasperated at Harry's cluelessness.

"Come on, Harry, haven't you seen enough of this house to tell what kind of wizards my family were?" said Sirius testily.

"Were – were your parents Death Eaters as well?"

"No, no, but believe me, they thought Voldemort had the right idea. They were all for the purification of the wizarding race, getting rid of Muggle-borns and having pure-bloods in charge. They weren't alone, either; there were quite a few people before Voldemort showed his true colours who thought he had the right idea about things... they got cold feet when they saw what he was prepared to do to get power, though. But I bet my parents thought Regulus was a right little hero for joining up at first."

"Was he killed by an Auror?" Harry asked tentatively.

"Oh, no," said Sirius. "No, he was murdered by Voldemort. Or on Voldemort's orders, more likely; I doubt Regulus was ever important enough to be killed by Voldemort in person. From what I found out after he died, he got in so far, then panicked about what he was being asked to do and tried to back out. Well, you don't just hand in your resignation to Voldemort. It's a lifetime of service or death."

"Lunch," said Mrs Weasley's voice.

She was holding her wand before her, balancing a huge tray loaded with sandwiches and cake on its tip. She was very red in the face and still looked angry. Having already looked at the tapestry and researched all of the pure-blood families in their third year, Hermione followed the others to get some food, leaving Harry and Sirius back at the family tree.

Hermione kept the pair in the corner of her eye, however, because she wanted to catch Harry's reaction to Sirius being related to the Malfoys. When Hermione saw the connection, she was only slightly surprised. The Sacred Twenty-Eight were all basically interrelated - that's the only way they could remain pure-blood.

Hermione saw Harry step back in surprise and look at Sirius with astonishment. He must have finally seen it. Hermione grinned to herself; Harry was so predictable.

She took a seat next to Ginny and grabbed one of the sandwiches. Ron was already on his second and well on his way to a third. Disgusted, Hermione turned to face Ginny so she wouldn't have to watch Ron stuffing his face.

"So, are you nervous about your O.W.L.s. this year?" Ginny asked.

....

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