Make The Wizarding World A Better Place

A Small Miracle

Two years later another child was born to Melania and Arcturus Black, this new addition was Sirius' favourite aunt Lucretia. She had entered the world without much fuss and the labour hadn't been nearly as straining as her older brother's had been.

Melania and Arcturus were downstairs in the sitting room while Sirius went upstairs to check on the little one, the same way he had with all the other children born to the House of Black.

When Sirius entered the room Lucretia immediately started to cry and Sirius was a little taken aback by this, until he remembered that the first time around his aunt had been terrified of vampires. But this fear hadn't started until Lucretia had been 23 years old, so her reaction to him now was decidedly weird.

   "Why do you cry, little one?" Sirius asked quietly in confusion, and the child calmed a little from hearing his tone of voice. Sirius was certainly startled when he heard a thought whisper in a frightened tone. It came from Lucretia.

   "P-p-please d-d-don't h-hurt me." The thought whispered, stammering in fright. Sirius was shocked, no baby had ever been able to form such coherent thoughts at this age before!

Then a thought crossed Sirius' mind, what if this generation retained its memories from his versions of the world? This could get very interesting, Sirius noted. But first he had a frightened aunt to consol.

   "Dear child, why in the name of Lady Magic herself would I harm you?" Sirius asked softly, letting his eyes revert to silver for the first time in many centuries.

This earned him a thought gasp from Lucretia who immediately tried to shield her thoughts from him, but her baby mind was far too inexperienced with occlumency for it to have any effect on his naturally strong legilimency.

When Lucretia realised that it wasn't working she gave up and peered back at him in equal measures of fright and fascination, she had obviously retained her memories, which was confirmed by her next question.

   "Orion, is that you? Why am I in a baby's body and how in Merlin's and Morgana's name did you become a vampire?!" Lucretia asked frantically. She was scared of what was going on and Sirius could understand that. He had been just as confused when he'd ended up in the years of the Founders.

   "No, Lucretia. I am not Orion, though it is a frightening thought that you would think my father and I are that similar." Sirius responded carefully, still using a soothing voice but this time with a hint of amusement.

Lucretia gasped again as she realised that this man - this vampire - was actually Sirius. Her little (favourite) nephew, who went to Azkaban a few years back on a life sentence.

But before she could freak out over that last one, Sirius gently prodded a few memories into her minds eye - showing her how he'd convinced James to switch Secret Keeper to Peter, how he'd chased after Peter when he had realised what Peter had done, how he was arrested by the Aurors and sent to Azkaban without even being given a trail.

Lucretia almost started to cry when he retracted the memories so that she wouldn't have them replaying in her mind, once was well and enough, and she held out her arms, trying to get to him and hug her little nephew tightly, but failing miserably.

Sirius chuckled when he saw this and swooped her up, using the shadows to do so, and got a gurgling laugh in response that made him smile at her softly, a warm feeling was slithering into his heart and Sirius was almost so shocked that he almost dropped Lucretia, when he felt his dead heart beat once.

His heart hadn't beaten once ever since the death of his beloved Merlin and it had frozen completely over the centuries. It had only beaten once, but it was enough for Sirius to know that happier times were coming.

Sirius refocused on his baby sized aunt and hugged her close, before walking out of the room smoothly. He carried her down the stairs, while he also changed his eye colour back to crimson. Lucretia peered around as much as she could, her eyes wide as she took in the sight of a much brighter Grimmauld Place 12. Although, she didn't know this was where they were.

   "Sirius, where are we? This place is beautiful." Came Lucretias mind-voice along with a sense of wonder. Sirius smiled gently and spoke back into her mind.

   "I must admit, it is quite different from how this home looked in our original timeline. Well, this home requires a new introduction to you I believe. Welcome, Lucretia, to Grimmauld Place 12 - although it doesn't look like what you are used to." Sirius responded and Lucretia was shocked. She had never been able to imagine this house as a home, but that was exactly what it felt like now.