Rose Weasley and The Beast of the Black Lake, year 2

Dalbert's Tale

"It's you, isn't it?" said Rose softly.

Dalbert shook his head and placed the picture on his desk. "I think you already know. I do find it curious though," he said thoughtfully. "It's curious that you were able to open it, Miss Weasley. It is possible of course, but that safe was protected by charms, only someone of our blood could get it open. Now, if I've done my ancestor correctly, you are very distantly related to Sirius Black and-"

"You're related to the Black family?" Scorpius interrupted incredulously. "But, I'm related to the Black family!"

"Yeah, we're cousins," she said obviously.

"WHAT!" Scorpius screeched. "Why the hell didn't you tell me?"

"I figured you knew," Rose replied slightly amused. "I guess you didn't know you were related to Teddy Lupin either, did you?"

"You mean your metamorphmagus cousin?"

"Yeah, you two are second cousins."

Scorpius fell back in Dalbert's teacher chair. "And all this time I wished to be one of you."

Rose furrowed her eyebrows at him.

"Well that was fun," Dalbert said amusedly. "But as I was saying because you are related it is possible for you to open the door, but not without difficulty. Unless-" he looked at Al. "Unless you invited a Slytherin in the Gryffindor common room."

Al shook his head, looking as confused as Rose was. "But sir, the spell must have been broken; Max opened the door, he revealed its secrets," she said

Professor Dalbert looked shocked. "But, I don't see how that was possible. James Potter himself placed the spell, and that boy never screwed them up except when his head got big, or he was too distracted."

"Sir, Professor," Albus started. "Why have we never heard of you? I don't remember any stories about your adventures and your name isn't on the marauder's map either. Were you even one of them?"

Dalbert smiled slightly. "Yes, I was a Marauder, in a way. I wasn't in the big leagues. How do I explain this? Have you kids ever watched geographic or survival shows?" Max and Scorpius were the only ones to nod. "Well, you know how there's the main character or survival guy who climbs mountains and swims down rapids and crawls through caves? Everyone sees and likes the main character, but what many fails to realize, is that the camera crew is doing it all too. The cameraman who's up on the cliff with the star, he had to climb too. Being rushed down rapids, climbing through caves, but nobody knows because he's behind the picture. That was me. I documented everything. I was their eyes, ears, messenger, and cover. And to be completely honest, I wasn't bothered by not being in the light. I was in nearly all of their charades, but I was very rarely caught and almost never blamed."

"You're not in hardly any of these photos," said Al, dropping the photo album onto the desk and flipping through.

Dalbert quickly wiped his eye as a tear seemed to jump forth the second he saw that book. "Ah, this was my most precious treasure," he said, rubbing the spine. "No, Potter, I'm not in nearly any of the photos because I took them and put this book together. There were, of course, many more with me, but I was going through a bit of a self-conscious stage and didn't want to be in the pictures. I've always been a behind the scenes guy. I played bass in a band for a little while and actually graduated with a degree in journalism. That's what I did at the Ministry."

"I thought you said you were an Auror," said Max, propping himself onto the desk.

"I wasn't for a while until I got a little too close to a scene. I was in the throng when Bones Drury attacked those children. The story became much too real for me, and I couldn't watch and not interfere as my profession would require."