B.Q. Book Two: Black Princess Ascendant

Chapter 14: Modern History

Disclaimer: Did Dumbledore keep Binns on staff, even though his being a ghost meant that he probably didn't keep track of historical developments that had occurred after his death? If so, I don't own the Harry Potter franchise; it belongs to J.K. Rowling, Scholastic Press, Warner Bros., and whoever else she sold the rights to.
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"Just once, I'd like to have a bit of a break," Sirius growled as he vanished a rotten crossbeam and levitated its replacement into position. "No sicknesses, no kidnappings, no covering up illegal adoptions, no fifteen-year-olds dressing up like bloody Morgana in front of the entire Wizengamot...

"And definitely no mass-murdering psychos breaking out of prison!"

"That's ironic. We said almost the same thing when the Prophet reported that you had escaped Azkaban," retorted Andi with a snort. A wave of her wand had the wood secured in place, and they continued on to the next thing that needed to be fixed.

He sighed. "I'm all for a good joke, but even I know when to be serious. And no, that wasn't a pun," he quickly added before his cousin could say anything. "If you have any useful suggestions, please tell me. I just can't figure out what we're going to do about all this."

Today was already shaping up to be a bad day. The morning's Prophet had sent the three Blacks into horrified silence; finding out that the entirely of the thirteenth floor of Azkaban prison, the same level he had spent a dozen years in and that held the most vile of offenders, had somehow been emptied was enough to induce nightmares in anyone who had lived through the War. The disappearance of nearly all of the guards made it look like an inside job, and the DMLE had already said that they were conducting an investigation into the whereabouts of the eight missing wizards, but Dumbledore was sure that this had actually been the official opening volley of the new war with Voldemort.

I can't disagree with him on that point, either. It makes perfect sense; eleven Death Eaters were locked up on that floor, and if we discount Wormtail, all of them were his most dangerous and most fanatical. Bellatrix, the Lestranges, Rookwood, Rowle, Travers... Any one of them would drastically increase his firepower, but all of them? And then at the meeting this morning, Dumbledore said that Arthur was stunned by an invisible enemy while he was guarding the Department of Mysteries. Was it an Unspeakable, noticing that he was there when he shouldn't have been? A guard making his rounds? Or was it really Voldemort hitting his second target of the day? A shiver ran down his back at that thought. If it truly was the Dark Lord, it meant that all the Order's time spent guarding the prophecy was for naught.

Voldemort now knew the entire truth.

"The war's heating up, the Death Eaters are as strong as they ever were, and I'm here fixing up a dance hall for a party I don't even want to host!"

"And you think we did?" Narcissa asked in a droll tone as she came down the hall from the other end. "Letting every member of the Wizengamot, their heirs – most of whom are uncouth little beasts, I'll have you know – and the heads of the Ministry departments into our house so they might go where they wished because the 'random' lottery chose us to host the Solstice Ball that particular year? At least Black Hall is separate from Grimmauld Place; three different times I caught wizards pawing through my bedroom in Malfoy Manor."

Ugh. I suppose she does have a point. There's no way anyone can use this place to sneak into our real home. The Blacks had not always lived in their townhouse in the heart of London; in fact, that was actually a relatively recent development. Before then, they had an actual castle as their place of residence, and when the family grew too large for everyone to fit, they had expanded into the neighboring countryside. Unfortunately, not even that had been enough protection; in 1666, their feud with the now-extinct House Maddox had boiled over to the point that the sons of Lord Adam Maddox, one of whom had been a curse-breaker, had led an attack on their estate that cost them nearly half of their family before the rest had been able to escape, and not even the centuries-old fortress had survived.