The Girl in Black

25: Toad infestation

Harry was roaming around grimmauld place, he felt relaxed. He just had his trial, an unfair one but thanks to Dumbledore he won. The ministry really was corrupt but if he was honest with himself he didn't care right now, he could go to Hogwarts next school year and was overexcited.

He came upon a room not yet cleaned apart from the tapestry on the wall, still in its former glory with its golden thread shining lightly.

It was the family tree of the noble house of black, Harry looked for Sirius but couldn't find him. He heard a cough from the doorway and turned around quickly.

"I'm not on there anymore, thank merlin for that."
Harry looked at his godfather with a confused look.
"Why?"

Sirius sighed and put his hands on Harry's shoulder, something James always did when he was explaining something important to someone.

"I think you can guess this but growing up here wasn't really nice and definitely not with that thing as a mother," Sirius eyed the portrait that just stopped screaming bloody murder.

"When I was seventeen I ran away..I left my brother, I should have taken him with me...James was the one who took me in, I'm your dad forever grateful for that. Thanks to your father and his parents I finally had a normal home and felt like I really had a family."

Harry looked at his godfather, he was never good at seeing emotions from the faces of other people but he could clearly see Sirius was sad.

A tear well up in Sirius' eye when he thought about his old life while they were at Hogwarts. He pointed at the tapestry.

"Here this is where my portrait hung, my mom burned it out when I ran away."
Harry looked at it again, but his eyes went to another portrait.
"WHAT IS DRACO DOING ON HERE?!!"

Sirius huffed, "my cousin Narcissa decided to marry that pig Lucius to make her mom happy after she helped a muggle born in school. Their kid is Draco...."
Sirius pointed at the two portraits next to Narcissa.

"I think you have heard of Bellatrix, the one that escaped Azkaban... and this is Andromeda, the only sane one of that branch."
Harry looked at the burnt portrait next to Bellatrix, "what did she do?"
"She fell in love with a muggle born, Ted Tonks. She got burned of the portrait and they didn't even put her daughter up there."

Harry looked outside the doorframe and saw Tonks jumping down the stairs with Ginny.
"With daughter do you mean Tonks?"
"Yes, lucky her she has never really been part of this house, I wish I could be too."

Sirius was drowned in his thoughts and didn't hear Harry asking questions when he was examining the tapestry further.

Harry sighed and waved his hand in front of Sirius face.
"OH what did you say?"
"I asked who that was."

Harry pointed at the portrait of a young girl, the portrait looked the newest with its golden thread shining the most.
The portrait wasn't connected to anyone but was right next to Sirius' mother Walburga.

Sirius felt his blood boiling, how dare she put his daughter on that tapestry and not even connect her to him. He got that in some mysterious way his mother loved his daughter, he still didn't really get why, but he absolutely didn't want his daughter on here.

Harry repeated his question. "Who is this?"
Sirius sighed. He felt responsible for Harry, he was responsible for Harry, but he had so much problems by being the chosen one and one kid in danger was more than enough. He didn't want his daughter in this as well, so he lied.

———

Aurora complained and whined to her dad in the hopes of joining the order. It worked half, she couldn't go to meetings or do something but Sirius did tell her everything he heard at the meeting as he saw it as bonding between daughter and father.