Life After Death - An Erica Black Continuation (4)

Twenty Five

They spent the next few hours talking over fire whiskey, discussing their lives before and after death. By 10AM, they were both inebriated and sprawled drunkenly across the bar top, laughing. The whiskey helped numb the exhaustion that tugged on every muscle in her body, dragging her down inch by inch and the only think stopping her from collapsing into a pile on the dusty floor of the tavern was the alcohol that lifted her up; mood and spirit.
"We should... We should probably get going" hiccupped the boyish man to his equally youthful companion who replied with a soft smile and bleary eyes,
"You're right- perhaps it wasn't so wise to get absolutely blitzed just before seeing McGonagall"
Regulus Black froze mid-sip of his fire whiskey, "Crap... McGonagall, seriously?" Her nodded response made him throw his head back in genuine laughter that pulled at the corners of her lips subtly. "I thought for certain she must be dead by now, how old is she now? A hundred?"
"Something like that- yeah, must be" She shrugged, "1935? 2028.." She muttered under her breath, her brow furrowed in a second of concentration "Yeah, she must be 93 or 4"
"Merlin, it didn't even cross my mind that she'd still be around, transfiguration professor, still?"
"Headmistress actually" she smirked at the man, her Godfather, who nodded with an expression that radiated how impressed he was but no surprise to be seen.

They turned to the barkeep who had taken over from Aberforth Dumbledore not too many years earlier. He led them to the floo system in the back and gave them a kind nod as he walked back towards the font of house.
"Hogwarts, Headmistress's office" she spoke clearly and steadily with a fistful of floo powder.
She tumbled out the other side onto the rug of Minerva McGonagall's office only to feel a body land on top of her seconds later. "Hmhm..." came a stern cough from above them, as Erica Black looked up from the pile on the floor, to see the Headmistress peering down at them over her squared spectacles.
"Miss Black, to what do I owe this pleasu-" the elderly woman's face paled significantly "Mr Black?" she gasped, her hand over her heart, her expression; dumbfounded.
"Professor McGonagall, Hi" waving innocently and offering the woman a foolish grin.
"Regulus Black, where in Merlin's name have you been? Everyone thought you were dead!" she shrieked as the heat returned to her cheeks.

"Well, I was professor, I died in '79 but well, Erica found me and... Well... double rainbows, y'know." he cowered slightly under the headmistress's disapproving gaze "seriously, no science fiction" he exclaimed, holding his hands up in faux surrender.
"What does that even mean?" laughed Erica, shooting a disbelieving look . Regulus explained; "like... I'm serious, It's true. You know?"
"Oh! Like the 411?" she asked, glancing at McGonagall for conformation which she provided with a subtle nod.

The three of them sat down at McGonagall's desk, and she asked him to explain exactly what had happened, all those years ago,
"Well, towards the end of my time here, at Hogwarts I got sucked into the buzz in the Slytherin common room surrounding Death-eaters and Voldemort. I guess it was kind of inevitable, I mean, my family, my mother and father were far from liberal when it came to blood purity. And then there was Bella, she was... persuasive to say the least and when my brother ran away, left me alone with those people... I didn't really stand a chance. But when he, Voldemort, asked me to help him hide something: something so unspeakably evil... so powerful and important.. I finally realised just how serious this was- how dangerous he was becoming. I knew I had to do something, anything to stop it. So... I created an identical replica to his locket and I took Kreature with me and when I had drunk every last drop of the potion, I swapped them. I gave the Horcrux to him and made him swear to never tell a soul, to guard it with everything he had. I knew I was the only one Voldemort had told, I knew if I escaped alive he'd find out. I had to disappear. No, I had to die. So I sent him back home, alone and eventually I surrendered to the potions will, I gave in and I tried to take a drink from the lake but the.. The Inferi caught me, dragged me down to the depths and that's where I've been- dead, for the last fifty years"
"Good Merlin... And you, Erica, I never truly got to ask my dear but seeing as history had decided to repeat itself, it seems only right to ask you, what exactly happened to you all those years ago?"
"Well... what do you want to know?" she laughed awkwardly.
"Everything, start from the very beginning my dear, as far back as you can remember"
"Okay... Well I was born in 1976, my dad was Sirius Black and my mother was Willow Ollivander and they were 17, fresh out of Hogwarts. My mum died when I was born and my dad... Well, he went into some kind of depression, he was never around much, maybe the occasional weekend or birthday. I spent most of my time with Remus and then after what happened to Lily and James, most became all. I spent three years here studying and then I found work as an editor for Gilderoy Lockhart which was ideal, I was working from home so my age wasn't an issue- and the pay was great. Anyway, when I was 19- about six years after I left Hogwarts, I died, committed suicide. The next thing I knew it was 1998 and I was stood over the crib of Teddy Lupin, I watched him grow up, only he could see or hear me, that is until I, we, created a spell which enabled individuals to see me- from that point on, Charlie Weasley could also see me. On the night of Teddy's eighteenth birthday I died, again, but this time I had a choice to make- I chose to live. I came back and then, within a few months I'd spiralled. A relationship with Libby Hale didn't work out and my response to that was to freak out and have a series of one night stands... One of them was with an older man named Edward Scott- He was a Ministry official and then in the early morning of March 14th 2016, I gave birth to my twin girls: Willow Elladora and Charlotte Neoma Black who are now twelve years old and in their second year of Hogwarts. That's when the dreams started, visions of Regulus trying to contact me, the day they were born was the day I had the first dream and they've been reoccurring ever since. Tonight he asked me to find him, said it was time for him to come home... So I went out and... got him I guess" Trailed off the petite woman, shifting awkwardly in her seat.
"Okay..." Sighed the headmistress, "If we, for a moment, assume that any of this makes sense; what happened in that cave this morning?"