The Tale of a Gaunt

The Black Family Tree

A few days had passed, and it was now time for Harry's hearing at the Ministry.

Arabella wished Harry good luck as he exited the door of the building with Mr Weasley.

After he was gone, she decided to explore the house a bit as she hadn't seen much of it.

She walked up the stairs, where she saw Kreacher, the Black family house elf.

"Mudbloods, werewolves, traitors and thieves. My poor mistress, if she knew the scum they've let into her house" Kreacher muttered.

He looked up at Arabella, scoffed and walked off.

She watched him walk away down the stairs, before carrying on her tour of the ancient hallways.

After about a minute, she approached a very dusty room. Suddenly, after walking around the room, the curtains at the front of the room flung open, revealing the portrait of the most unpleasant woman that Arabella had ever seen.

The old woman's eyes were rolling, her yellowing skin was taut and she was drooling, she started screaming.

"Filth! Scum! By-products of dirt and vileness! Half-breeds, mutants, freaks, begins from this place! How dare you befoul the house of my fathers-" The woman shrieked.

Sirius and Abigail then rushed in, tugging the curtains shut over the woman, but to no avail as the curtains stayed stuck.

"Shut up, you horrible old hag, shut up!" Sirius yelled.

"You! Blood traitor, abomination, shame of my flesh!" The woman screamed at him.

"Shut- UP!" Sirius shouted, and they managed to yank the curtains shut, and the screaming stopped.

Sirius and Abigail turned to Arabella and smiled.

"Hello, Bella, I see you've met my mother" Sirius panted, smiling.

"That was your-?" Arabella started.

"My dear old mum, yeah" Sirius said.

"We've been trying to get her down for a month but we think she put a Permanent Sticking Charm on the back of the canvas" Abigail said.

"But why's a painting of your mum here?" Arabella asked.

"Hasn't anyone told you? This was my parents' house, but I'm the last Black alive-" Sirius started, but was cut off by the tiny kick of the baby currently in Abigail's womb. "-yes, but you're not born yet, Padfoot junior" Sirius laughed.

The three of them laughed.

"Or maybe Padfoot juniors, not sure" Sirius said.

"What do you mean?" Arabella asked.

"Well, we think that the baby is either twins or a very fat baby" Abigail smiled.

"Yes, we'll see in November" Sirius smiled excitedly.

A moment later, Sirius spoke again.

"Follow me, I want to show you something" He said, gesturing Arabella to follow him.

The pair of them walked to a room, which was decorated with a tapestry going around the room with a tree in the middle, branching off.

"Is this your family tree?" Arabella asked.

"Yeah, impressive, isn't it?" Sirius smiled.