Lady Black (Sirius Black's Daughter)

Life as Lady Black

After that night, she learned not to rely on anyone else. If you want something done, you'll have to do it yourself. Of course, this was hard when she was little. She didn't know how to do anything. No one had ever taught the three-year-old how to do magic or how to go through daily life, more importantly, she never learned to protect herself. This would later on show to be a problem. Right now though, the young child had to follow instructions from a talking portrait. Her grandma spoke to her through it. The old woman taught her how to behave like a perfect, little heiress of a pureblood line. Spells, charms and potion recipes were to be practised everyday as well as studying the works of the Ministry and all the pureblood lines.

The childhood she was supposed to have with her family -Sirius, Remus, James, Lily, Peter- was stolen from her. Instead, she grew up so fast that one would confuse her for an adult if it wasn't for her physique. She introduced herself to society at eight years old. It goes without saying that the mature wizards and witches weren't impressed by her young looks. It took a while before anyone learned to take her serious. She was after all the sole heiress to the Black estate, they ought to respect her for that. It didn't immediately happen. She withdrew, studied, learned to dress more appropriate in the current fashions, etc.

Then when she finally turned eleven, the magical coming of age stage of wizarding Britain, she got her rightful position in the ministry. The Black family seats were finally given to her. This way, she gained political power. As a representative of one of the Sacred-28, meaning old pureblood lines, the young witch received respectful nods from fellow ministry officials. Sure she was only a child, but she was the child. The child full of promise. The next generation of purebloods. Her grandma had always told her how important blood purity is. How she should know that her blood is better than that of mixed wizarding children, or even worse, muggleborns, or as the old Lady Black used to refer to them, mudbloods.

Jane never knew how to react to such statements. She hadn't met many non-pureblood magic folks. She figured it best to wait with judging until she met some muggleborns and halfbloods. Immediately, adding so called Blood traitors to the list.

The opportunity to do so arrived on an early Tuesday morning. An envelope with a purple waxing on it and addressed to her in green ink, showed her the way. Hogwarts. The youngest Black couldn't say she was surprised when the letter had found its way to Grimmauld place. Hogwarts as a magic school needs magical children to attend. As an eleven year old witch, she qualifies. She read the letter like her grandmother asked her too, then picked up quill, ink and some parchment. Her elegant cursive writing wrote an answer to the received letter to inform Hogwarts that she would be honoured to join their school.

Afterwards, she left towards Diagon Alley. The letter had included a list of necessities to bring to Hogwarts. A quick stop at the apothecary ensured that all requirements for her potions classes would be met. Flourish and Blotts provided all listed books and Madam Malkin made her school uniform. In short, she had nothing to complain about. Most shopkeepers were kind to her. They had seen her walking around with Kreacher, or by herself when she was a bit older, for years now. They all knew of what happened to her father and therefore pitied the young girl.

How could one not? The little doll had always been far too polite to resemble her mischievous father, or to seem like a child. What child could listen to adults talk for half an hour without fidgeting? What child was interested in politics or looked insulted as one offered a playdate with kids her age. She didn't understand how they tried to mother her. She was normal, was she not?

She wasn't and she never would be. See, she had quite an exceptional set of powers. Like her cousin, she could change appearances. On top of that, she had control over the elements. Fire, wind, earth, water... were for her to manipulate. A flick of the wrist, a foot turned to the right ... she had it down. And as she was no ordinary girl, she needed a companion that was special as well. Cats were cute, but useless. Toads were just icky. The last option was to get an owl. They're practical, intelligent and proud.

Deciding it was an owl for her, she looked between different kinds. Not a single one was able to catch her fancy until a dark, speckled owl hooted. She was beautiful with her ebony feathers and light spots which seemed to resemble the stars. It didn't take long for Jane to decide that this owl was coming home with her, such a majestic creature it was. As she payed for the bird, she had to name him for the register.

She thought about it. The owl was dark like the midnight sky and had spots wich resembled the brightest stars. What better name to give then, than Nox? The animal was a beacon of the night, it's only appropriate for it to carry the name.

With the owl as her last purchase, she returned to her home, a house of lonely days and horrible nightmares brought to life.