A Woman's Intuition (Fem!HarryPotter)

Chapter One

Andromeda Tonks rested her forehead against the cool wood of her desk. As many headaches as her daughter had caused her over the years, this one had them all beat.

Amy Potter lived in muggle Surrey!

She'd hardly been able to believe it when her daughter told her, but she was willing to make the brief floo trip to find out what her daughter was talking about.

Arabella Figg was quite happy to let her use the living room to speak with the little girl she hadn't seen in almost ten years. The things she heard made her skin crawl. Never did she think that she would have been sent to live with Petunia Evans. Lily hadn't spoken to her sister for years when she died, so why Dumbledore thought Petunia would ever take good care of the girl was a mystery to her.

It was evident that the girl needed away from her relatives. That much was certain. The only question was how to go about it. Dumbledore being involved complicated things by a large degree. Arabella's testimony to his knowledge of the girl's home life painted a rather ugly picture of the headmaster of Hogwarts.

The girl started school soon, and thankfully, wouldn't be blindsided by her letter, but there was still so much she didn't know. Andromeda was tempted to tell her not to go. Dumbledore would be able to manipulate her rather easily, the girl not having any parental figures to guide her, the headmaster of her school taking an interest in her would no doubt seem like a much-needed lifeline to the girl.

But she knew Dumbledore did not have her best interests at heart if she had not received any training in the Old Traditions.

She was the heiress to a noble house, for Merlin's sake!

Now that she knew where she was, she had a duty to the girl as her representative on the Wizengamot. For all intents and purposes, she would be laying her political field out for her to take over once she hit her majority. She needed training before then, and during the school year was not feasible. Her focus would need to be on her classes, not politics.

That left summertime, but without easy, regular access to the young girl, Andromeda wouldn't be able to teach her enough. Dumbledore was too powerful for her to go against alone in this. She needed to find a way to outmaneuver the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot. The only kind of person who could do that was the head of an old, powerful family with an unusually large amount of political clout.

She knew who she needed to talk to. But it would be dangerous, and not at all pleasant.

After all, her grandfather had disowned her nearly twenty years ago.

---

Arcturus Black was an old man. His wife, Melania, had passed on some years ago, and even both of his sons had met their ends before he had. Not that it was surprising, fools as they were.

But being old didn't mean that he was in poor health. Quite the contrary, Arcturus was in rather excellent condition for his age.

Oh, he wouldn't be trying to duel anyone anytime soon, but he could certainly hold his own if he had to, and he could do everything he needed to without the aid of a nurse. 

If he ever got to that point, Merlin damn it, he would find some way to end it with dignity. Family in shambles or not.

It had been years since he felt he had a purpose. He'd not had much to do with any of his family members, the remaining ones having married into other families, died, or been disowned. He was the head of a family with no members to speak of.

It was just as well, maybe this was penance for how he'd run things.

He'd allowed his children too much free reign, designing marriage contracts for his grandchildren that completely ruined their lives and reputations.